Laney Demmer (10) and Tehya Demmer (12) traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) for a dairy judging competition November 4-5.

The two Demmer sisters competed in groups of four with Amber Engelken and Madi Palmer.

Ten sets of four cows were brought out at a time, and their group had to judge the cows based on their appearance. Then, after the judging, they had to explain their reasonings to the final judges.

The following day, the judges gave awards based off of the group’s judging comments. The girls earned first place as a team in Jersey cows.

“The point of the competition was to learn more about judging and how to do it properly,” Laney Demmer said. “It was really stressful when judging the four cows because you only have 12 minutes to place them and write reasons for the placements.”

The competition consisted of 22 youth teams and 16 college teams.

“It was a big eye-opener,” Tehya Demmer said. “I didn’t realize you could do things beyond 4-H.”