Greenwood has successful ADGA show

Audrey Greenwood, who will be 21 years old in October, competed in the youth classes of the American Dairy Goat Association National Show for her last time. She concluded her youth career as the premier youth LaMancha breeder and the premier youth recorded grade breeder while also showing the premier youth junior doe and the premier youth senior doe and finishing first in showmanship and being part of the first-place fitting team.

"Overall I did a lot better than I expected," Greenwood said. "I believe that it was a good year to end my youth career and a good little debut of my official open career."

The ADGA National Show took place July 6-13, in Redmond, Oregon. Although there are separate youth class awards, the youth exhibitors also compete against open division breeders for overall awards.

"I was expecting to be middle to end of the classes," Greenwood said.

Dry does are female goats that have not yet given birth.

"I was top 10 in almost every class. I actually had a couple of top fives, which is super awesome," Greenwood said.

A junior doe is 1 year old or younger. Jamilla, who was born in March 2018, gave Greenwood the premier youth junior doe award for LaMancha goats.

Senior does are at least 2 years old.

"Almost all of my does were top 10, which was a huge accomplishment for me," Greenwood said.

The top three in each class are shown for udder placing. Three-year-old Hermes, who was third in her class, took second in the LaMancha udder showing.

"I was not expecting that," Greenwood said.

The breeders whose goats placed above Hermes were all in the open division, and Hermes was chosen as the premier youth senior doe.

"That was super cool," Greenwood said.

The recorded grade class is for mixed breeds. Yahtzee, who was four months at the time, took first place in the recorded grade class.

"It was a cool feeling because I've never won first place in the open division before," Greenwood said. "It was pretty cool, especially since I bred her and her mom and her dad."

A yearling beat out Yahtzee for the premier youth junior doe award in the recorded grade class.

"I'm just happy that she won her class," Greenwood said. "It was fine she won her class the way she did."

Yahtzee added to Greenwood's top 10 recognitions.

"Having a lot of top 10 does of my own was super awesome," Greenwood said.

There is no showmanship in the open division, so this was Greenwood's final showmanship year at the ADGA National Show.

"It went good," she said.

Greenwood showed Fusion, a 4-year-old LaMancha.

"I was definitely feeling the pressure. I was pretty nervous," Greenwood said.

The location and dates of the ADGA National Show determined whether Greenwood, who had competed in the San Diego County Fair's market livestock shows, attended past national shows. Greenwood attended the ADGA National Show in 2015 and 2017 but not in 2016 or 2018. She won the showmanship award in 2015 and 2017, and Fusion gave Greenwood her third top showmanship honor.

"It was definitely special to win that my last year," Greenwood said.

The showmanship competition is based on how the animal is shown and prepared.

"Cleanliness is a big part of it and your knowledge on the goat," Greenwood said.

National FFA Organization has an alumni year provision which allows FFA members to pursue their American FFA degree, and the San Diego County Fair allows FFA members in their alumni year to compete in the youth dairy goat show and the market livestock show.

During last year's county fair Fusion won best in show for all dairy goat breeds as well as overall LaMancha champion and senior LaMancha champion while Greenwood and Fusion won the dairy goat showmanship and then won the master showmanship for all large animals.

The fitting contest, which is also for the youth division only, involves teams of four. The teammates select each other before the ADGA National Show. They are given a goat who has not been clipped and whose hooves have not been cleaned, and the quartet has 30 minutes to ready the goat for showmanship standards.

Greenwood was part of a team which also included members from Ramona, Northern California and North Carolina.

"We've been working on it for months," she said. "We already kind of know what we're going to do."

That translated into first place in the ADGA National Show fitting competition.

"It was really nice to be able to execute what we had planned," Greenwood said.

Greenwood had previously won the fitting contest in 2015 although with different teammates.

The presentation of the top breeder awards occurred at the conclusion of the show.

"It was, I guess, a good way to end everything," Greenwood said.

Greenwood was designated the premier youth LaMancha breeder and the premier youth recorded grade breeder.

"It was good to be awarded those two awards," she said.

Greenwood was five when she joined Fallbrook 4-H Club and began showing rabbits at the San Diego County Fair in 2003. She started showing dairy goats at the fair in 2006. Greenwood transitioned her affiliation from 4-H Club to FFA when she began high school; although Greenwood attended Oasis High School she took agriculture classes at Fallbrook High School which made her eligible for membership in Fallbrook's FFA chapter. Greenwood graduated from Oasis in 2017.

Her great-grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor who was stationed on the U.S.S. Argonne, and Greenwood named her business Argonne's Dairy Goats after the ship. When Greenwood is not taking goats to a show Argonne's Dairy Goats is located at the Greenwood family home in Fallbrook.

This year's ADGA National Show concluded Greenwood's youth status for showing dairy goats.

"I'm excited to be an official open breeder," she said.