Just two years ago, Allison Pung was competing at the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge Competition. She had competed in two separate divisions while at Michigan State University, eventually qualifying for nationals by winning the local competition in the fall of 2016.
The North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge is a multi-level competitive event that gives dairy focused college students the test of assessing a real-life dairy farm procedure and returning to a panel of judges to present their recommendations. It was these experiences while a student in dairy production management that qualified Allison to now judge the local Dairy Challenge Competition at MSU. Over twenty teams came together in November to battle it out for the champion spot that would eventually travel to Wisconsin to compete in the national championship in March 2020.
“I grew up on a dairy farm and studied dairy production management at Michigan State University. While competing myself, I learned many skills including farm management, teamwork, and public speaking,” says first-year judge, Allison. “It was a natural progression to give back to a program that has taught me so many valuable lessons as a judge this year.”
“The youth competing in this program are the next generation of farmers and industry professionals. Through involvement in this program and others I can show my support for agriculture now and in the future,” explains Allison. “The panel of judges is made up of dairy industry professionals, such as milk inspectors, feed sales representatives, and reproduction specialists. It only made sense to have a judge with both a financial and dairy background, as a major initiative of the program is to help students make reasonable recommendations to the farm and relate recommendations back to monetary values.”
It’s some of these skills Allison learned through the Dairy Challenge Program at MSU that she has continued to use as a credit analyst within GreenStone.
Aligning with their mission of cultivating and developing future leaders in the agriculture industry, GreenStone is honored to be an annual sponsor of the Michigan State University Dairy Challenge Competition. The cooperative takes pride in supporting their members and the personal development of youth.
For more information about Dairy Challenge, please visit DairyChallenge.org.
