What takes two farm kids from Maryland and catapults them to multiple National Champion Titles in both the Livestock Judging & Show Arenas? A combination of fierce competitiveness, family and love for what they do. “If you love it that much, there’s zero reason you cannot accomplish it.” Chris and Randy Mullinix’s lives are our version of the American Dream. They grew up 30 minutes West of Baltimore and 1 hour outside of Washington D.C. They were raised on a farm family consisting of their mom Charlotte, dad Gene, three older siblings, Doug, Mark and Beth, and younger brother Patrick. 100% of the Mullinix family’s income came from their work in Agriculture. They worked the land and the majority of their dad’s day-to-day was spent working their two grain elevators. Chris and Randy’s passion, however, was on the animal side of it. The Mullinix’s primarily raised cattle. They did not feed the huge numbers like you see out West, but for their area, it was a relatively large feed yard along with a smaller cow herd. Chris and Randy started building their Hereford breeding program at the age of 10 or 11. They worked on everything together from such a young age, including making the mating decisions for their operation. Chris reflects how they fell flat on their face growing up, but they never settled for average. If they were going to do
something, they were raised to do it right. With every failure, they went back to the drawing board to come back stronger. The pair never showed outside of Maryland until they attended their first Junior National Hereford Expo in 1987. They exhibited three head. All three stood at the bottom of their classes. They went home, however, not with their tail between their legs, but with a plan. Through hard work and dedication, the next time they exhibited at JNHE, it was with a 2nd place finish and Top 10 Showmanship Honors. In fact, after winning the Quiz Bowl as a team of two (as they were the only exhibitors from Maryland), the Hereford’s made a rule requiring a three-man team. Their mentality to always better themselves and achieve their goals has led them to be two very influential people in our industry today. Chris and Randy were as fierce a pair of competitors as you will ever be around. “The first person I tried to beat every day of my life was my brother [Randy] and he did the same with me. I am proud of that. We ultimately chose different paths in the livestock industry, but I strongly believe that a great deal of the success we both have had can be attributed to that part of our life” Chris reflected.
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T his competitive the 4-H State Judging team at the age of 15 he then dedicated his final year in 4-H to Dairy Judging on one of the country’s most elite Dairy judging programs [as he was unable to compete in livestock judging after making the state team at a younger age]. Then he set his sights on a 4-Year University as Ag Programs at the Junior College level were non- existent in his part of the country. A big influence in his life was Dr. nature did not begin and end in the show ring. Once Chris knew there was an opportunity to compete in livestock judging, he was all in. After being on
Scott Schaake. Around the time that Chris was on his State’s 4-H Livestock Judging Team, Schaake was working on his PhD at the University of Kentucky while also serving as the University’s livestock judging coach. In that same time frame, he was the judge at the Maryland State Fair. Mullinix admired how Schaake evaluated livestock, who he was as a person, and it was definitely something that intrigued him to look into a program Schaake was coaching [the University of Kentucky at that time] and seek his advice. After looking into multiple options, Chris decided that Kansas State University was the right fit for him. As fate would have it, when Chris started as a Freshman at K-State, Dr. Scott Schaake received the job as the
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