By Lana Olson, Expo Blogger

As I was watching bits and pieces of shows on Wednesday my attention was grabbed by something I saw in the Milking Shorthorn ring- something bright pink and sparkly. True to my prediction it was Jessica Achen, National Milking Shorthorn Queen, a 19 year-old from Sauk Centre, Minn. Achen, who is a good friend of mine and fellow member of the Minnesota Junior Holstein Board of Directors spent Wednesday afternoon handing out awards and showing her cattle- all in a pink formal gown and sparkly crown. Earlier in the week however, you could easily spot Achen with four shiny medallions around her neck as I found out after visiting with her in the barns after a long day of showing.

Achen, along with her dairy judging teammates from Stearns County, Minnesota swept the entire 4-H dairy judging contest Monday. Achen was named high individual overall, high individual in reasons and also was a key member to the high team overall and high team in reasons. Achen’s teammates Emily Lahr (5^th overall, 5^th reasons), Abby Udderman (24^th overall) and Emily Achen were extremely surprised after the win. Jessica says, “We just didn’t know if we had the potential or not, it was a big surprise.” Judging as team since 2001 has made the team very close and that is just one of the reasons why this title has meant so much to those four girls.

When Achen isn’t fulfilling her duties as Queen or Dairy Judging Champion at Expo this week you can find her in Barn 9, heading up a string of animals from her farm and a few from other exhibitors. As for the rest of the week, Achen says she plans to lay low and just enjoy the good cattle and good friends. “I really like catching up with old friends and people I have met along the way, I really enjoy my time here at Expo.”

Be sure to stay tuned here for more from some of the people at Bright Lights, Big Show: World Dairy Expo 2007. Also be sure to watch HolsteinWorld.com for daily news at Expo and up-to-the-class show results of the International Red and White and Holsteins shows Thursday thru Saturday.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 10:55 am by avryhof and is filed under Uncategorized, World Dairy Expo. Hits for this post:18 You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.