Los Banos FFA travels to Scotland to compete in international dairy cattle judging

LOS BANOS, Calif. (KFSN) -- Los Banos High School FFA students are in Scotland gearing up for an international competition.

They'll be evaluating dairy cattle and then judges will score how well they do.

Los Banos High School FFA students Brooklyn Silva, Matthew Pacheco, Zoey Wooten and Karley Rocha are getting in their final hours of practice before taking on challengers from across the pond.

The team will be competing in dairy cattle judging.

"We did not think that we'd be able to make it this far, but we're so excited to have the opportunity to," Silva said.

The competition includes students evaluating a group, or class, of dairy cows and ranking them from best to worst.

Then, the students meet one-on-one with a judge and defend their evaluation.

The students' knowledge is also tested.

They had to learn about the dairy industry, dairy prices and technology, so they took tours of industry leaders like STgenetics in Ohio.

Leading up to the state contest at Cal Poly, they hadn't won a competition.

But as the event got underway, Coach Stuart McCullough knew they had a shot. Then came the awards announcement.

"They called the second place team second - I was like, we just won this thing," McCullough said.

It was only the second time the team had won state.

The last time was in 1963.

After taking home the top spot, they started preparing for nationals.

The top three teams in the US advance to the international competition. The Los Banos team finished fourth.

"Basically, we were the first to be deflated," McCollough said.

But their defeat didn't last. About a month later, they were notified of a judging error.

They actually placed third and earned an invite to the international competition in Scotland.

So they got back to work.

"It takes a lot of knowledge and a lot of practice to be able to be successful in this team," Silva said.

Coach McCullough says it's been incredible to watch his team build confidence and life skills.

"The experience these kids get, the on-the-job training they get in a sense, it's priceless. You can't buy it anywhere," McCullough said.

He and the fierce foursome are now looking forward to seeing how they stack up against the competition from around the world.

"Hopefully maybe place, but we just want to be successful in any way possible," Silva said.

The team will be competing in Scotland this Saturday.

You can follow along with how they're doing on the Los Banos FFA Instagram page.

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