Show Teams

Beef Show Team

Beef cattle have been raised and exhibited at UC Davis since the early days of The Farm. Students used to take their animals by train as far away as Chicago. Now, almost 100 years later, the beef show team is again alive and active.

This year the beef show team exhibited cattle at the county fairs in Amador, Nevada and Yolo counties. Their animals won Champion Angus Bull and Reserve Champion Angus Heifer at the Nevada County Fair and Reserve Champion Angus Bull and Reserve Champion Angus Heifer at the Yolo County Fair. At the Yolo fair, one of the very pregnant heifers delivered a healthy heifer calf only 30 yards from the midway and in the midst of excited fair goers. The team hopes the calf, named Zipper, will follow in her dam's show team footsteps.

Champion and Reserve Champion Angus entries were shown by beef team members Tara Turner (left) and Devon Jones at the Nevada County Fair this summer.

Members of this year's Beef Show Team were Devon Jones and Tara Turner. Others who assisted at the Yolo County fair were Kristen Burton, Katrina Inchauspe and Judy Etcheverria. Dan Kominek, beef facility manager, advises the team.

Dairy Show Team

Gina DeFazio and Victoria O'Nion, student herd managers at the Animal Science dairy, along with Deniece Williams and Elisa Noble, are the energy behind the dairy show team. Doug Gisi, dairy facility manager, oversees the team's activities. In preparation for the summer fairs, they worked hard getting animals ready for showing, clipping and washing them and halter breaking the young stock.

The four women took six dairy heifers and cows to four shows this summer, spending about five days at each site. At the California State Fair in Sacramento, their educational display of breeds included a Milking Shorthorn, Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey and Brown Swiss, all good examples of working dairy animals. They took the top herdmanship awards at three fairs, where they were judged on the cleanliness of their area, care of the animals, public communication skills and their educational display. They handed out to fair visitors various donated materials from the California Milk Advisory Board-buttons, stickers, pamphlets and recipes.

In addition, the Guernsey heifer won Junior Champion at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, and, at the Yolo County Fair in Woodland, a Shorthorn heifer took Junior Champion and a Holstein the Senior Grand Champion. They also showed at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton.

As Gina said, "It was really fun to represent UC Davis in these fairs. We had fun working together and with the public."

The Goat Show Team

The goat show team shows Boer meat goats and various breeds of dairy goats. This year, the six student team members-Elaine Ferrell, Erika Scharfen, Maureen Hyman, Tracy Dolan, Jolene Berg and Kathy Purcell-attended two county fairs, three goat club shows and the California State Fair, taking ten Grand Champion awards and seven Reserve Grand Champions with seven different goats, mostly Toggenbergs and Alpines. Jan Carlson, goat facility manager, advised the team.

Goat team members (left to right) Erika Sharfen, Maureen Hyman and Elaine Ferrell took awards with their dairy goats at shows this summer. These three recorded grade does, two Alpines and a Toggenberg, won second place for Best Three Females at the California State Fair in Sacramento

At the California State Fair, the team garnered first place in herdsmanship for the dairy goat show and second place in herdsmanship for the Boer goats. They won the Best Educational Display award for both dairy and Boer goat shows.

The California State Fair in Sacramento features one of the most competitive open dairy goat shows in the world. Owners of the six Supreme Champion does at this year's State Fair have donated top breeding animals to the Animal Science goat program at UC Davis over the past year-Charles and Joan Dean Rowe of Capay, Allyson and Kristi Bozzo from Galt, Lauren Acton and Jeanne White of Molalla, Oregon, and Karen Senn of Redding. The department is grateful to these and other producers from the West Coast who have generously donated animals, frozen semen and money to this program.