One Indiana ten year 4-H member capped her career in the best way possible, taking the Indiana State Fair Supreme Livestock Showman title. Morgan Tomson from Decatur County made it to the showmanship final as the cattle champion and credited her fellow members for the great competition.
“You go up to the state fair and you compete in senior showmanship and really you’re competing against the best of the best. There isn’t a bad showman out there. It’s really the judge’s personal preference that day and it happened to be me. Competing here is a really big honor and I commend all the 4-H’ers who are out here. They did a great job!”
The showmen handle 3 different animals, cattle, swine, and sheep, they have never worked with. Tomson was fortunate to have cooperative animals even though you can win with animals that don’t cooperate.
“It helps if you have one that does cooperate. You saw even the person who won reserve. His pig didn’t want to drive and he still had that showmanship even if his pig isn’t acting right.”
She grew up on her family’s grain and cattle farm and is now a Purdue student majoring in animal science and ag business. Hear the full HAT interview with Tomson:
Clay Kincaid from Henry County was the showmanship runner up. Other finalists were Jackson Johnson of Huntington County, Adrianne Trennepahl from Henry County, Joel Flanders of Hamilton County, and Kyle Garringer from Jay County.
One of the judges Saturday night was Taylor Plank from Cass County, a member of the Purdue livestock judging team who was honored to be judging at the state fair level.
“To judge anything at the state fair is a great honor, especially the Indiana State Fair where I grew up. I was a 10 year sheep showman in Cass County and here at the state fair. My brother was in 4-H a few years ahead of me so I’ve been coming down to the state fair for more than 10 years.”
Plank is involved with his family raising club lambs in Walton, Indiana and hopes to continue judging around the state and at the state fair. Livestock is definitely a passion.
“I think livestock in general is just a great thing for kids to get involved with because it’s actually hard work and it’s the work you put into it. That’s what I love about the showmanship deal so much. You could have the best animal at the fair and your animal gets picked. But you could have the worst animal at the fair and come through and win showmanship just because you put in that work out in the barn and made that extra effort to make sure your lamb is that perfect.”
A senior ag education major, Plank will student teach in the spring at Carroll High School in Carroll County. Hear the full interview: