BROWNSTOWN — Four youths gathered Friday morning at the Jackson County Fair’s show arena one to compete for champion at the 2024 4-H supreme showmanship contest.

To qualify for the competition, contestants must have received master showmanship in their species.

The livestock shown by 4-H’ers during the fair each year are swine, dairy, boer goats, beef, sheep, dairy beef and dairy goats.

The four 4-H members competing for this year’s supreme showmanship title were Collin Downing of Vallonia, Brooklyn Bottorff of Sauers, Charlie Hackman of Sauers and Mya Wolka of Brownstown.

During the showings, the exhibitors started with swine, guiding their animals with show pig whips around the arena. Unlike the rest of the animals that had reins, the pigs were not bound, their movements less linear.

Out of all the species, the one that gave the participants the most trouble was the sheep. They were both loud and did not want to stay still, but the participants kept their professionalism throughout each round.

Each transition was seamless, the next species ready outside the arena to immediately be switched out, leaving little room for waiting around.

By the end of the supreme showmanship competition, Downing, representing the boer goat and sheep barn, took home the championship for a second year in a row.

For this year’s supreme showmanship, Kyle Jacobs of Monticello, who is the seed operations specialist at Inari Agriculture, was the judge in charge of picking a winner. Having grown up on a family farm in east central Indiana, he has shown a multitude of animals throughout much of his life.

Some of Jacobs’s experience includes his degree in animal science received from Oklahoma State University, where he was on a livestock judging team. Overall, his diverse agricultural background made him a great choice for the job.

Jacobs said that he had the opportunity a few years back to come to the Jackson County Fair and was glad to be back in Brownstown to judge.

“I just want to take a second to make sure we appreciate what we just asked these exhibitors to do,” said Jacobs. “I’m sure, depending on the species that they came out of and were already victorious in, […] they were probably working very diligently with that animal.”

He said the skill it took for these four competitors to get to the arena, each of them requiring dedicated time to truly understand their animals’ personalities, weaknesses and strengths to be able to “operate as one unit.”

Jacobs said that when it comes to judging livestock, there will always be a layer of subjectivity to it, but clarified what he specifically looks for during his evaluations, aside from the basics, which is what helped Downing take home the championship.

“The next level there are that the exhibitors are able to do the hard things and make it look easy [and] effortless,” he said.