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8
meet your neighbors
A Journey with Journey
Photos Courtesy of Cowsmopolitan Dairy Magazine
By Julie Turner-Crawford
Phillipsburg, Mo., teen garners big win at the World Dairy Expo Whitney Yerina has been at the Whitney Yerina and her halter of more than one champi3-year-old Guernsey on, but the “big” win at the World Journey at the 2021 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., was Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. just beyond her reach – until now. The 17-year-old senior at Conway High School in Conway, Mo., exhibited the 2021 International Intermediate Guern- well. The longer we stood there, the more sey Champion of both the junior and excited I got. They [the judges] were takopen shows, and the 3-year-old cow, Dix- ing, but Molly flew through them. She Lee Method Journey, was crowned the sent out her associate judge to pick the 2021 Junior International Grand Cham- champion, and he, for a second, cut back pion Guernsey. to the senior champion, then made a bee“It is a big deal for me,” Whitney said. “I line for me with a big smile. I was like, won reserve grand for two years in a row ‘Oh, yeah!’ This has been an epic year. (in 2014 and 2015) with my Fawn cow. I Just knowing I had a cow good enough thought she would go back and win it, but to sit at the top is a pretty good feeling. she got sick and never went back. I nev- Judges usually like older cows because er had a shot at winning intermediate or they have developed into what they want grand again; then, I took Journey. I kept to see, so for Journey, as a young cow, to saying I wasn’t going to get my hopes up, go in and win grand in the junior show but she is a really good cow.” means she is an exceptional cow.” The 2021 Expo was Journey’s first trip to Whitney didn’t show Journey until she the colored shavings and only her second was a 2-year-old, and Journey was a secseason of being shown. ond choice for the show string. “She won just about everywhere we “There was another heifer I showed went,” Whitney said of the 2021 show as a spring calf in 2018,” she said. “That season. “She’s had a heck of a year. The heifer went to Expo, and she was fifth way the judge (Molly Sloan of Colum- in the junior show and 11th in the open bus, Wis.) and her associate (Glyn Lucas show. Then when she calved in, she got of Dumfries Galloway, Scotland) talked a DA (displaced abomasum) and didn’t about Journey during the inturn outright. Then Journey calved in, termediate shows, I knew and she was looking really good for a we had a pretty good shot at 2-year-old. I was like, ‘Mom, I want winning. The senior champito show her.’ She said OK. Then on was going to be the biggest I had to halter break her as a obstacle to get around, but the 2-year-old. Cows are generally more you looked at the senior harder to break than heifers, champion, you could pick a few Phillipsburg, Mo. but she has always been suthings apart like she didn’t blend per friendly.” Ozarks Farm & Neighbor • www.ozarksfn.com
Journey may not have been Whitney’s first choice, but the teen is now very smitten with her. “Besides her structural feature and mammary system, she is the most easy-going cow,” Whitney said. “She has a great disposition. I tell everybody I love a cow that looks good and is nice to me while I’m trying to make her look good. She and I are a team.” Whitney showed Journey at the 2020 Ozark Empire and Missouri State fairs, where she began to rack up titles. After Journey calved in May, Whitney said she only got better and earned even more titles, including the 2021 Missouri State Fair Supreme crown in the junior show. “The judge said when Journey walked into the show ring, it gave her chills,” Whitney said, recalling the Missouri State Fair. “That’s what I was hoping to hear. I’m glad everyone feels the same way I do about Journey. I loved to watch her develop, and I think everyone else has, too. She’s just going to be that special cow that keeps going. I’ve had a lot of people tell me they can’t wait to see what she turns into as an older cow.” Journey and her dam were born on the Dix-Lee farm near Phillipsburg. Journey’s dam and the dam’s and twin remain a part of the Dix-Lee herd. OCTOBER 25, 2021
