We Are the Champions

Each year the 4-H/FFA Meat Goat Show at the Maryland State Fair gets bigger and better and the competition gets stiffer. Here are this year's winners:

Fitting and Showing Champions

In the Meat Goat Fitting and Showing Competition, the Champion Senior Showman was Kyle Hudson (left) from Avenue, MD. The Champion Intermediate and Overall Champion Showman was Konnar Miller (center, right) from Smithsburg, MD. Cooper Bounds (right) from Taneytown, MD, was the first place junior showman. In the Meat Goat Fitting and Showing Championship Challenge, Konnar bested Troy Bennett, last year's champion.

Champion Market Goats

The Champion Market Goat was a 88-lb. doe kid exhibited by Konnar Miller (right). Konnar's goat brought $5.50 per lb. in the 4-H livestock Auction. The Reserve Champion market goat was a 88-lb. wether exhibited by Grace Garst (left), from Walkersville, MD. Grace opted not to sell her goat in the sale.

Champion Rate-of-Gain

Claire Bennett from Uniontown, MD, exhibited the market goat with the highest rate-of-gain. Her 94-lb. doe kid gained 0.63 lbs. per day. Claire also had the market goat with the second highest rate-of-gain at 0.48 lbs. per day.

This year's rate-of-gains were significantly better than previous years. The 52 goats in the show average 0.289 lbs. per day, compared to 0.234 last year. By way of comparison, the buck kids in our Meat Goat Performance Test are gaining 0.238 lbs. per day on a pure pasture diet with no grain supplementation.

Market goats which gained more than 0.3 lbs. per day received blue (excellent) awards. Those gaining between 0.2 and 0.29 lbs. per day received red (very good) awards and those gaining less than 0.2 lbs. per day received white (good) awards.

Champion Meat Goat Does

This was the first year the meat goat breeding show had been split into commercial and registered shows. The Champion Registered Doe was a 2 year old doe exhibited by Grace Garst (right). The Champion commerical doe was a yearling exhibited by Kyle Hudson (left). Grace's registered doe was named Grand Champion Doe of the 2006 show.

The Champion Commerical Buck was a senior buck kid exhibited by Sara Culver from Elkon. The Reserve Champion was the second place senior buck kid exhibited by Carlene Lease from New Windsor. In the registered division, Levi Lantz (Oakland) had the Champion Buck, while Cody Thorne (Bryantown) was the exhibitor of the Reserve Champion Registered Buck.

The judge for both this year's and last year's show was Bob Hare from Winchester, Ohio. Bob is a senior judge with the U.S. Boer Goat Association. He is a breeder of meat goats and sheep.