New England Holstein Association Podcast: Betsy Bullard Talks With Members of the Junior Program

In episode 13 of the New England Holstein Association podcast series, Betsy Bullard talks with Maddy Poitras, Will Bullard, and Sydney Bullard. They discuss the junior program and the various activities junior members enjoy. The junior’s activities, contests, traveling and opportunities to meet others from around the country are invaluable. In their own words, the junior board members talk about what the program means to them.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Welcome to the New England Holstein Association podcast series. The mission statement of the New England Holstein Association indicates that it's a member association dedicated to encouraging the breeding and raising of registered Holsteins, and this podcast intends to provide resources towards those ends while increasing member connectedness. This episode is sponsored by the Maine Department of Agriculture. I'm your host, Betsy Bullard of Brigine Farms Turner, Maine, and Area One Director for Holstein USA. Each podcast will feature one or more members discussing timely topics from breeder perspectives, marketing activities on farm technologies and management strategies to youth highlights and numerous things in between. Guests will have homework for each episode, naming iconic New England cow and a personal cow icon whose story intertwines with their Holstein experience. Today's episode features conversations with some of our junior or under 21 members. Maddie Poitras of Massachusetts, Will Bullard of Maine, and Sidney Bullard of Maine. Anyone under 21 can be a junior member. There's not a requirement to own a certain number of cows or even to own holstings. Activities include various age group-specific cows, dairy knowledge bowl, dairy jeopardy, public speaking, both prepared and extemporaneous, preparation of digital scrapbook, and promotional banner for the club. The New England State's representatives compete as one entity with other states across the country annually at the National Holsting Convention. So I'm gonna start with Maddie. Maddie, what's your favorite convention location so far?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

My favorite convention location so far has been when we went to Lexington, Kentucky. It was perfect weather while we were down there, and it was just so great to see all the farmland down there.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Will, how about your favorite convention location?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

I mostly enjoyed Utah just because, well, I mean the convention aspect might not have been the best. The actual historical stuff we saw while there was quite good. What sort of historical stuff some of the Mormon history on the towards during that convention, which I found to be pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Different from Maine, right? Yes. That's accurate. And far away as everything is from Maine. Sydney, what's your favorite convention location so far?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So my favorite convention location was definitely before either Will or Maddie were juniors, but my favorite was when we were in Seattle and we got to go to, or we were right outside of Seattle, but it was in Washington State, and we got to go to the Space Beetle. And I thought a lot of the scenery and the farms on that trip were really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

So National Convention is a great excuse to see different parts of the country and meet some different people too. So a lot of our activities focus on dairy knowledge, which you can tell from dairy knowledgeable, dairy jeopardy. Maddie, what's your favorite question you've gotten in one of the contests?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

My favorite question was last year when we were in Missouri. It was the who was the recent FFA dairy handling winner? And the answer to the question had been Olivia Venevra. And it was cool for me because she's a girl I'm friends with, I've known for a while, and she's just a couple years older than me. So to have somebody like that who I'm close with as a question was really cool.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Maddie, that brings up a great point that we talk about a lot of times in this podcast is the various connections that come from our Holstein activities. And I think your youth activities are a great example of that. Will, what's your favorite question you've gotten in one of the contests?

SPEAKER_02 3:55

I'm not really sure I have a favorite question per se. There's been some I like more than other, but none have really stood out.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

So, well, I'm remembering Dairy Bowl round where there was a team from New England competing against a team from California. I remember the moderator inquiring as to whether anyone on the New England team knew anyone from California. Did you know anyone from California? Well, seeing if my cousin was on the other team, I might. So that made for kind of a fun, fun sort of thing. Sydney, do you have a favorite question?

SPEAKER_01 4:31

I don't have a specific favorite question, but whenever there's an acronym question asked, I love those because like I can pull those out off the top of my head and just rattle them all off.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Well, so I should have asked this question first. Maddie, can you tell me what some of the contests you've competed in at National Convention are?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I have competed in the junior Jeopardy for three years. And this year will be my second year being in the junior Dairy Bold Knowledge. And I've also, this will be my also second year doing the prepared public speaking.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Tell me more about Jeopardy. Does that look exactly like you would think it would? It's like the game show Jeopardy, but with cow questions?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Yeah, it's very similar to the game show. You have the different columns with the different point values, and you have the daily doubles, you have the three rounds with contest with you have a few contestants in each heat for each age division.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

And how about the dairy bowl contests? Sydney or Will, can you tell me a little bit more about what that contest looks like? How many people do that? What how does that work?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

So Dairy Knowledge Bowl is when you have four people from generally to state, but for New England it's six states in one team.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

So Dairy Bowl is four members of a team from a state, or in our case, a region. Each team has a captain. And after we take a dairy knowledge exam, which places us for the contest, we have we go through a bracketed rounds, double elimination, kind of like a sports tournament. And there's 16 toss of questions in each round. When three members of a team answer a question, we have the opportunity for bonus questions.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

So team so teamwork is key. So for our listeners who can't see facial expressions, you can only imagine what they what they might be like at this point. Will describe one of the club activities, either convention or practice leading up to convention, that's been particularly enjoyable for you.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

I think just practices in general have been pretty enjoyable just because comparing to talk to the other people from New England and other people on the team and to see kind of their perspective, especially the people who aren't exactly from farmer background or from a dairy farm.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

I think it's interesting to see the difference in perspective between someone who's been raised on a farm and someone who we've brought into the process otherwise, which goes back to my point earlier. There's no requirement to own a certain number of Wolsteins. There's no requirement to live on a farm, to grow up on a farm. We're we're pretty equal opportunity and and love to get new people involved in the process. So that's our that's our little bit of a sales pitch, I guess, for anyone who's who's listening. Sydney, what are some club activities that you've enjoyed?

SPEAKER_01 7:24

One thing I enjoyed that definitely various levels of enjoyment from all of us, but one year we did kind of a little bit of a contest between our younger members and our older members that had to do with some assignments, and it led to pying whipped cream pies, got thrown at some people for the enjoyment we lost. The older kids lost, but I don't know. It's one of those things that like sucks at the moment, but everyone enjoyed it, and it's a team bonding experience, if you will.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Maddie, do you happen to remember that? Do you remember the pies?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

I do. I remember pying. I think it was Trevor Clapp in the face I pied.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

I I feel like there was a lot of enthusiasm from the younger group that they had the opportunity to do that. So that's definitely a dynamic sort of process. What's your favorite dairy product?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

My favorite dairy product is cheese. It's so many different flavors and it can be used so many different ways.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Do you have a favorite kind of cheese?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Alpine cheddar.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Oh, excellent. That was very specific. Will what's your favorite dairy product?

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Cheeks for me as well, but if I were to say a favorite cheese, I'd probably have to go with Burry.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Sydney, how about you? My favorite day-to-day dairy product would probably be cheese. It's just so multi-purpose, I can use it with anything. A good cheese stick, though, is probably my go-to. But you can't beat ice cream. Like a good chocolate ice cream is probably my my favorite. I'm just not eating chocolate ice cream every day.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Right. I think, yeah. So that's that's interesting. We have like special occasion dairy products, and then we have like our day-to-day go-to dairy products. So that's that's a good point to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

I don't know if a specific cow fact, but just some of the like numbers and just little details that I think we think about because we're focusing on it, because it's oh, we need to study how many farms there are, how many cows there are, and how many cows per herd. But feeling a lot of people outside of farm don't think about, okay, these are the numbers.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Manny, do you have a have a cow fact that you think would be interesting?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

One fact that I always find when I tell my friends about it is that a cow, a lactating dairy cow may drink up to 40 gallons of water per day, where humans only drink about a half to one gallon of water per day.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

So 40 gallons, that would be like a bathtub full of water, wouldn't it? That's a lot of water. That's not gonna fit in your yeti. Will, did you well, like several yetis, maybe, or Stanley cups. Or did you come up with a weird fact or interesting fact? I shouldn't say weird.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

I'll say my interesting fact that cows can smell you if you're about six miles away, if I'm remembering correctly.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Yes, six miles. Six miles. That's pretty impressive. Makes me wonder what our cows are smelling on a day-to-day basis. Practices for the teams, that's pretty serious business, right? You're very focused, you're very diligent about your studying. Do you guys end up having any fun at practices?

SPEAKER_00 10:22

I would say we have fun.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Oh, yeah, good answer, Maddie. It's always fun. Will?

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yeah, and I'm not sure focused is the proper term.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Balance. Balance, yes, balance between fun and and focus. My next question: when you head to national convention, and you've talked about different locations like Utah, Kentucky, California, Washington, have you each of you had the opportunity to meet some other people from other regions?

SPEAKER_02 10:54

I've met people from other regions, we'll say that.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

So fortunately in national convention, we do have name tags, which I think is Will and I are both very, very thankful of that. Maddie, how about you? Have you had the opportunity to meet some people from other areas?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah, I have. I I know people from the south. I know people from out at Midwest, like Wisconsin and Ohio, and I know California people. It's definitely great to get to know them because then you go to shows like Louisville or World Dairy Expo, and it's like, oh, I I know you from National Holstein Convention.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

So there we are with those connections again. Sydney, and you had the opportunity to meet folks from other areas?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah, and I think what Maddie said is a really good point. Like you meet them at Holstein Convention, whether it's in the whole holding room for a contest or at a junior mixer, but then you go whether it's expo or anywhere else, any other big event within the dairy industry, and you run into people who you met at Holstein Invention.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

So it definitely works to build that sense of community and some of our activities, and definitely gives all of you that participate an opportunity not only to meet other people from New England that you might not meet unless you were involved in this process, but from other regions of the country as well. So Sydney mentioned a mixer. What are some what are some of the other activities that happen at National Convention outside of the contests?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Well, we usually have like a different fun game night kind of thing. I remember a few years ago it was like sports things. So it was different inflatables, and it was like soccer and there was basketball. Or one year we did a Kahoot. It was just like different little fun things, and we'll usually do a dance with lots of music.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Sydney? Well, you have tours, whether it's farm tours or other some of our conventions that there's been more like local to the area kind of sightseeing-ish tours. I think one of the junior activities, I don't remember which convention it was. It was a while ago now. Or like the inflatable bubbles that people go in and run at each other was one of the the things. That was a lot of fun to watch.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Oh, a lot of fun to watch. I don't know. Maybe some people actually participated in that instead of instead of just watching. So it's a whole host of activities, contests, opportunities to get to know some other people from other areas of the country. So you also, your junior Wolstein club has officers, and you have the opportunity to run your own business meetings and plan out your own activities. And I think actually all three of you are involved in positions within the club, aren't you? Maddie, tell me a little bit more about your role within the club.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

So I'm a social media co-chair along with Savannah Judd. We basically, whenever we have like a fundraiser or if we have a like clinic or activity or something that we want to do, we'll basically post about it on Instagram and Facebook. We talk to the group of executive people and figure out what we want it to say, what it we want it to look like. And then we'll go and post them on the social media to keep you guys all informed.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

I'm the club's treasurer. I generally have a fundraiser by helping the system coming up with them and pricing for tickets or the like with a program full of counting money.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Oh, counting money, right.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

That always reviewing our annual budget.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

And as as treasurer and social media as well, you both certainly have the opportunity to appreciate the generous sponsors that we have throughout the region that make it make it possible to go exciting places like Utah. And where are we headed this year? Orlando, Florida. Orlando, Florida. And Sydney, you also have occupied some roles within the club over time.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah, I've previously served as three for three terms as treasurer, so I definitely did like poke at Will a little on what his duties are or could be. But currently I'm serving as our president of the club.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Each of the three of you, and we'll go kind of go around, say to anybody who might be interested.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

I can start. I think one of the biggest things is the connections. Whether it's just like within our New England group, we're still so spread out within New England that within our group, you meet people, you oh, I you live four hours from me in Vermont, and I didn't know you existed. Here, we can do this together now, or it might be a job in the future. But then also going to National Hosting Invention, whether it's other juniors or other adults within the industry that can help you as you move through life beyond your junior career.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

How about you, Maddie? What would you, what would your sales pitch be for somebody who isn't involved today but wants to be?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I think it's if you want to be, you can just find a club like I did. I personally didn't grow up with Holsteins or on a large farm, but I was involved in very much so the Jersey Junior Associations. And me and my sister started leasing Holsteins, which led to us both being part of the New England Holstein Association. And being it helps you kind of figure out a source of like where your food comes from, responsibility. I like how Sydney said you meet people that you didn't even know were as close to you as you were.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

How about you, Will? To continue with something Maddie said, you really get to learn a lot about where your food comes from you with. So just something which I'd say is it's really important to learn that. One reason why I'd say people, even if you're not a farmer, shouldn't do it. But the even if it might not be exactly your thing, just what you learn. It's still quite pretty important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Well, thank you guys. Thanks for the sales pitch. That was pretty good. We each had homework naming an iconic cow, both in your lives, and if you if you think of one that's kind of a New England iconic cow, that's that's fantastic too. Maddie, do you want to start on this?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

I think mine kind of leads more so to a New England iconic, because this cow wasn't alive in or wasn't alive what I've been showing. And I didn't personally work with her, but I've worked with a lot of her granddaughters. But my cow that I thought was a New England icon was dying to read. She was scored excellent ninety five, and she was on but a good friend of my sister and wheel. In 2008, she was an all-American minimum four-year-old. In 2010, she was an all-American minimum age cable. In 2011, she was a green champion near the Brunchone. And in 2012, she was an all-American minimum eleven production. It's well known. Like I said, I've worked with the granddaughters of her, I've worked with a daughter of hers. And even as we're looking at the calf sale in Massachusetts, I'll have seen some heifers that's like, oh, I I look at their pedigrees and her grandmother is Linda.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Will, do you have a cow that either in your own personal experiences or one that you think of as just iconic cow?

SPEAKER_02 18:08

I don't really have an iconic cow, but one of the more important ones for me was the cow by the name of repeating while we Jojo. She was uh one of the first ones I were owned, so probably pretty important to me.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Excellent. And so does believe Jojo have kind of an interesting cow family, maybe behind her?

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Well, her dam has made quite a few daughters, many of which we sold or just kept in the farm. They've done some of the better cows we've had in recent times, I'd say.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Absolutely. So her dam is 94 point Humble and Kind Jill Lee, and the next dam is Jedi Jungle, who enjoyed some showring success and was 95 points. So that's seems like a pretty solid choice for an iconic one. Sydney, how about you?

SPEAKER_01 18:55

I was put on the spot with this today, and I have two that I'm like debating between. The first one I didn't ever technically work with, but Brighne convincer Rhonda, who is X195, who most probably 30% of the animals I own go back to her. I remember her as like a big white cow at a box doll. So, like that's one of my first iconic New England Brighin cows. And then I wonder who I'm gonna pick. Brigine M SSGG 2987 or Monterey Gal, because why are we gonna say numbers and letters? She was an excellent 93 gold 2e gold battle damn cow who we showed she was nominated junior all-american, my first junior all-American nomination, and she has five excellent daughters, including two at 94. So she's then kind of influential to what I've done with my herd of cattle.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

So, some pretty interesting examples there. What have I not asked the three of you that you feel like it's important for somebody listening to know either about the junior holsting club or about your activities or your junior hosting experience?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

The opportunities, like you don't know what's gonna magically appear. Not that it's magic, but you might do a contest and then meet someone there and it leads to XYZ. Like it's not necessarily just competing in contests or going to a show and showing as a junior. There are more opportunities sometimes than we think of at first. It's not just dairy bowl, dairy jeopardy, it's everything else.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

Well, thanks again to the three of you for being willing to participate in this podcast, and especially since this was a bit of a redo, since we had some steep learning curve on our on our first try on this, but we're much improved today. When we think of upcoming events, there are some that probably will have passed by the time we have this podcast aired. But the calf sale that Maddie mentioned earlier, that's happening the 21st, right, Maddie?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Yes, 11 a.m.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

Excellent. And that'll be at the Eastern States Expo Fairgrounds in Massachusetts. We'll have our Northeast All Breeds Spring Show, and that's just like it sounds. There's all different breeds showing, including our Holstein. So I would anticipate seeing all of you there and looking forward to those activities, lots of youth activities as well as open shows and lots of those connections. The requirements for our junior members are that you be at least nine years old and less than twenty one years old, and it does require a one time membership. Can anybody tell me what that one time membership fee is? Thanks, Maddie. And just in case anybody was guessing that. Is oftentimes a jeopardy or a quizball question. So thanks, Maddie, for reminding us on that one. Thanks again to our sponsors at the Maine Department of Agriculture. Also, don't forget to find our podcasts at nesholsteins.com, Spotify, Apple Play, YouTube, or wherever you find your favorites. And we'll look forward to upcoming episodes as well. But thanks again for participating.