Junior Takeover — Sibling Support on the Farm and In the Ring

Welcome to the Angus Conversation.

I'm your host, Miranda Ryman, with my co-host, Mark McCulley, and we are here at the National Junior Angus Show, Mark.

Louisville, Kentucky.

We've got green shavings out in the ring, which is always kind of a tradition of Louisville and here at the North American facility, and things are off to a fast start.

Absolutely.

And a really cool bases loaded kind of game here with all of the nods to baseball and the little sluggers.

And it's just really a fun atmosphere.

Absolutely.

And we are here with a guest co-host, as we've done traditionally on these Junior Takeover podcasts.

We have Ava Leibfried here from Platteville, Wisconsin.

Hello, everyone.

Excited to join you all on the podcast today.

Your term is starting to come to an end here.

Yes, it is.

Currently serving as the chairman of the National Junior Ag Association Board and have done just a fantastic job with that.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's a bittersweet week for me.

Last Junior National and last Junior National on the board.

So very much enjoyed my time on the board and especially this last year as chairman.

We've had a great team and always fun to hang out and interact with the juniors too.

You're a junior at Iowa State University.

Tell us a little bit about your career plans and where you're going next.

Yeah, so I just finished up my year as a junior at Iowa State, majoring in agricultural business, and I'm thinking I want to pursue the animal health in the sales realm.

So we'll see how that goes, but I always want to return back to the family Angus farm as well.

So, yeah, I really enjoy Iowa State and excited for my senior year.

Sure.

And in terms of your involvement with the National Junior Angus Association, what were some of your kind of highlights or key things that were your events?

Yeah, obviously we're sitting at the National Junior Angus Show, so I'd be remiss to not mention that.

So that was always my favorite week of the summer to see everyone and hang out with all my Angus family.

Also, LEAD, I loved going to that and, you know, getting to see my Angus family in a different light, in a different location every year.

And then raising the bar that we have in the spring, highlighting different colleges.

So all of the events are a lot of my favorites, but as a junior board member, I really enjoy getting to go to Different preview shows all over the country.

I've been to MAJAC, Atlantic, and I've never been to Reno, so I was very excited to go there, too.

So, a very fun, different perspective going across the country in that aspect.

But, yeah, I'd say the National Junior Angus Show has always been my favorite on the island.

And you guys, I think for maybe those that just come and watch, they see you in the ring and see all of that work, but you guys have a really busy week.

You guys run contests, obviously the work leading up to this, all the planning of the contest, but you guys are busy from sunup to sundown.

Oh, yes, we are.

We have a very fun-filled week, but it's a very busy one.

So we have a wonderful events department, but us 12 junior board members help lead all the contests, work the ring every day.

AMP, obviously, our Angus mentoring program that we have a lot of the days that is more of a fun activity for our juniors to take part in each day.

It has been really fun to plan and really fun to do with our juniors, but...

Every day has something different and it's fun to be able to be busy and be able to make this week the best week for our juniors.

We've added to your list of responsibilities coming to help be a guest co-host for us on these next three episodes we'll have at the Junior Takeover.