Thompson named first Red & White queen

By CARYL VELISEK
Staff Writer

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Twenty-year old Hannah Thompson of Walkersville, Md., has won the first National Red & White Dairy Cattle Association Queen competition. Hannah is the daughter of John and Suzan Thompson of Walkersville. The contest was held during the National Red & White Convention in Harrisonburg, Va. on July 21 through July 24.
As part of the contest, Miss Thompson was first interviewed by the Queen Contest Committee. Following the interview contestants gave their speeches to the general membership and then answered a fish bowl question.
On the following evening, at the Convention Banquet, dressed in formal evening attire, contestants introduced themselves and the winners were announced.
In her speech, Thompson told how she had decided to become a Red & White enthusiast while at a sale when she saw a calf step into the sale ring. That calf is now a seniorthree-year-old in Thompson’s herd.
Her family has been a part of the dairy business for at least five generations, Thompson said and her grandfather was a high school agricultural teacher and then principal of his school.
Thompson said she was given a heifer calf for her eighth birthday, she said, and “soon joined 4-H and embarked on a lifelong journey in the dairy industry,” she said.
“My journey,” she added, “has taken me from showing at the county fair to World Dairy Expo, and to receiving Junior All American Red & White nominations, from county judging practices to earning a trip to Europe as a member of the Champion National 4-H Dairy Judging Team, and from giving speeches to my local 4-H club, to winning the National Holstein Public Speaking Contest.”
Thompson is a senior in agricultural communications at Ohio State University where she is involved with the Buckeye Dairy Club, Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow and Alpha Zeta Partners (Agricultural Honorary.)
She is also a studio producer with the Agri-Broadcast Network, an agricultural radio network with affiliates across Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama.
This fall she will combine her background in dairy with her interest in communications as a marketing intern at Select Sires, Inc.
After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school followed by law school hoping to serve as an advocate for the dairy industry.
Thompson began her dairy career exhibiting Brown Swiss cattle through the leasing program. When she had progressed to the point of being ready to own her own animals to exhibit, the Red & White heifer that caught her eye at the sale, Ri-Val-Re SS Cindy Red, was one of the first animals she actually owned.
“Her first calf, Chili, is my first bred and owned animal,” she said.
She also helps promote the breed working for MD-Hillbrook at Red & White sales and plans on extending that promotion as National Red & White Queen.
“I will actively seek out platforms to showcase and promote the breed using my writing and speaking skills,” Thompson said. “Additionally, I will be pro-active in expanding the junior programs offered by the association.”