show cattle. As is the case with most families, being the younger sibling, I benefited from showing longer and expanding my showing career into the heifer barn. I had some success showing Angus and Chi heifers which made me want to explore the breeding side of the cattle industry. This fueled my desire to continue showing cattle at all levels, but also gave me the drive to pursue livestock judging as more than just a 4-H activity. The opportunities growing up can all be attributed to our parents Fred and Bonnie Rayfield who pushed us to excel in everything we did. Our parents insisted that we become involved in 4-H and FFA activities. 4-H was an outlet for my brother and me to compete and afforded to the Rayfield boys interests and goals. We were both state 4-H project winners in public speaking and both served on the state 4-H Council. These experiences led us to pursue degrees in agricultural education at Auburn University. A pivotal moment for me was the summer network with youth who had common
before I entered Auburn University in the fall of 1990. I received a phone call from Smokey Spears who was the County Extension Agent in Lee County, AL (county that Auburn University is in). Smokey was and still is a legend in training 4-H livestock judging teams in Alabama. His team had won the state 4-H Livestock Judging Contest that summer, which I had participated in, but his team only
will destroy us when we get to Louisville. He had the most effective way to ground us all, I just wasn’t smart enough to understand his tactics as a coach. When the dust settled at the 1990 National 4-H Contest, Alabama was high team in oral reasons, 8th high team overall and I was 4th high individual in the entire contest. I believe our team is still the highest placing team from the state of Alabama
the three years I worked as an extension agent, I took three teams to national competitions. All three teams placed in the top ten and the most notable team was the 1993 Georgia 4-H team that placed 5th at the National 4-H Livestock Judging Contest. I loved every minute I worked in Extension, but there was little room for advancement or a more competitive salary. I was asked to apply for an ag teaching position at Worth County Middle School in Sylvester, GA in the summer of 1996. I was certified to teach from my undergraduate degree, but I was hesitant to give up the freedom I had as an extension agent. Another fork in the road where fortunately, I chose the right path! For the next six years, I taught ag at Worth County Middle School and loved every minute of it! We had a very successful FFA chapter and livestock showing program. We fed 30-40 head of cattle per year, 80-100 market hogs, and 20 -25 market lambs. During that time frame, we had 4 state champion livestock judging teams, state champion market lamb, two reserve champions at the state market hog show, and multiple champions in
at the National 4-H Livestock Judging Contest. After the contest I was approached by several collegiate coaches asking me
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where I was going to judge in college. This illustrates one of my greatest strengths and one of my greatest faults, loyalty. I had enrolled at Auburn University and had promised Tim Osborn that I would judge for him. I never wavered in that decision and had a successful collegiate livestock judging career at Auburn. After graduating from Auburn, I took a position as a county extension agent in Georgia. I still had livestock judging fever from college but now I was a coach instead of a competitor. During
had 3 members on it. He asked if I would join the team and judge in the National 4-H Livestock Judging Contest. Without a doubt, that phone call changed my path forever! We practiced most of the fall leading up to the contest in Louisville. I had no idea if we could be competitive or not. I thought we were good, but Smokey would remind us all the time, the Texans and Okies
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