Alysse Givan and Erika Pearsall watched the Dairy Cattle Show at the N.C. State Fair last year, wishing they could participate themselves. That wish came true this year for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences graduate students – with a lot of hard work.

Givan, Pearsall, senior Alyssa Dunn and sophomore Ethan Humphrey participated in the fair’s Open Dairy Show in Raleigh, North Carolina, Oct. 22-25.

The N.C. A&T Collegiate Team showed four Jersey heifers and received six awards: four ribbons in showmanship (which focuses on how the handler performs showcasing the animal) and two in the heifer open class (which focuses on the animal itself), Dairy Unit Research Coordinator Corey Burgess said.

In the Inaugural Collegiate Showmanship class, Pearsall placed second, Dunn third, Humphrey fourth and Givan fifth.

“These young people worked very hard for three months, halter training, washing and clipping their cows,” Burgess said.

“That work develops the trusting relationship that is so needed when you are in the show ring with a crowd watching, competition to your left and your right, and it's just you and your cow,” he said.

“We literally stayed in the barn for four days and nights making sure our animals were well-taken care of throughout the day and night,” said Burgess, who cooked three meals daily for the team during the event.

“It was really an eye-opening experience, because it was the first time for all of us to show heifers at the state fair,” said Givan, who is studying integrated animal health systems. “It was our heifers’ first times, too. We felt like a family there. We had fun. It was quite the experience.”

Burgess said A&T has not had a team in the state fair show since the 1970s.

Seven CAES undergraduate and two graduate students also went to the 20th Southern Regional Dairy Challenge in Knoxville, Tennessee; Assistant Professor Lauren Mayo, Ph.D., said.

The students coached and volunteered at the Nov. 16-18 event and garnered three of the six top team placings, Mayo said. Dunn's team took first place; Josie Mora's team took second place and Ethan Humphrey's team took third place in the competition.