International experience has a way of changing people, and several young Angus producers recently got the chance to learn that firsthand. While at the National Junior Angus Show in Tulsa, Okla., Sam Jordan spoke about his time at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland, and Tucker Stagemeyer and Jonwyn Ayres recapped their World Angus Forum experience from Australia. They talked about adapting to different formats and country-specific styles while highlighting the global friendships they’ve kept up since returning home.  

HOSTS: Miranda Reiman, Mark McCully and Jonwyn Ayres 

GUESTS:  
Sam Jordan, Savannah, Mo., is a recent high school graduate and plans to attend Redlands Community College and judge there in the fall. His 4-H livestock judging team earned third at the national contest to earn a spot to compete at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland in June.  
 
Tucker Stagemeyer, Page, Neb., finished his two-year degree at Butler Community College where he competed in livestock judging, helping to earn 2024-2025 Team of the Year honors for the school. He grew up on a diversified farming operation with registered and commercial cows, a stocker enterprise and irrigated corn and soybeans. 
 
CO-HOST:  Jonwyn Ayres, a third-generation Oregon Angus breeder, attends Oklahoma State University and competes on their livestock judging team. She is working toward an undergraduate degree in animal science with a pre-law emphasis and plans to raise Angus cattle with her family while specializing in water and environmental law.  

SPONSOR: Ready to see how Vermeer can help you get more done in a day? Visit Vermeer.com/angus to learn more and find your local dealer. 
 

Miranda Reiman (00:03):
Welcome to the Angus Conversation. I'm your host Miranda Reiman with my co-host Mark McCully, CEO of the American Angus Association. We're here for day two in Tulsa and we are looking forward to a great day, it's morning right now. So we're looking forward to a great day of contests. We consider this contest day Mark

Mark McCully (00:20):
One of the big contest days and had a great opening ceremonies last night. For those that have not ever participated or seen what that's like. Each of the states come out as a group, and so it's fun to see some of the states obviously, that have lots and lots of kids that are here. They come all out together, they get all dressed up, and we got lights and all fun and music and such. And then even some of the states that there may be one representative and comes out by themselves. And

Miranda Reiman (00:44):
It reminds me a little bit of the Olympics when you see everything from team USA to a country you've not heard of that comes out with their one team.

Mark McCully (00:53):
Very much kind of an Olympic opening ceremony, kind of a feel to it. But no, it was fun. The kids have a great time, obviously they have a big time with it and gets everybody all excited to take on the week. And then of course, this morning started at 7:30 with the team fitting competitions and so there was chutes set up and kids going at it when I was over there earlier. And that's really, I know one of the really popular events for kids to participate in. And we've got a golf tournament going on right now, the Angus Foundation's golf tournament. It also started off and a reasonably cool morning for it, and so

Miranda Reiman (01:31):
I don't know, it felt hot when I left the hotel.

Mark McCully (01:32):
Reasonably cool. Yeah, it's July and it's in Tulsa, so No, I know that was going to be a great event. We've got livestock judging this afternoon, lots of different contests, Cookoff this afternoon, lots of things to participate in.

Miranda Reiman (01:46):
One thing that we talked about with our guests who are on today that we're kind of dubbing this one, Angus Juniors Go Global, was the way that the contests that they participated in through the National Junior Angus Association have prepared them to have success in future contests and endeavors and maybe even earned them the spot to travel abroad.

Mark McCully (02:06):
Absolutely, yeah. From skillathons to speaking to judging, to fitting, obviously showing all the things that all played into their participation to travel into some different parts of the world and represent the U.S.

Miranda Reiman (02:23):
So I don't want to give away too much of our really good conversation that we just had, Mark, but you were there at the World Angus Forum and got to watch the youth compete and all that they participated in and just talk about how they represented the American Angus Association.

Mark McCully (02:38):
So proud to watch those kids, and we got into it a little bit here in the podcast, but it was by design. There wasn't a ton of information, so a lot of the times you knew you were going into a certain kind of contest, but you really didn't know many details. No one did. Right. And it was about adaptability and it was about thinking on your feet and about some pretty quick decision making and such. And so we got to watch a little of the competition at the forum. A lot of it we didn't see, but we got to watch a few of the things and they just did such a great job. It was by design a pretty diverse group that had some different backgrounds, but just watching the kids across all of the teams. I mean obviously these are just some of the best and brightest and some just fantastic kids from all over the world and all coming together and having fun, lifelong friendships. I'm sure that were established there for the handful of days. And team USA did our country quite proud. I know all our members would be so proud of the job they did.

Miranda Reiman (03:41):
Well, I think all of our guests today, you're going to want to listen to this podcast and they're going to be young adults to watch as they go out in the industry and do some great things and stay connected to the breed.

Mark McCully (03:52):
No doubt.

Miranda Reiman (03:57):
So today's guest co-host from the National Junior at Angus board is Jonwyn Ayres from Oregon and Jonwyn, you've been on the board now. This is your second year?

Jonwyn Ayres (04:06):
Yeah, this is my final year. Yep.

Miranda Reiman (04:08):
Okay, very good. And you are communications chair? No, I just that

Jonwyn Ayres (04:13):
I'm vice chair.

Miranda Reiman (04:14):
Yeah, vice chair. And what have been your responsibilities this week? Or what are you guys kind of taking care of all

Jonwyn Ayres (04:20):
Week? Yeah, we really divide and conquer when it comes to the National Junior Angus Show. The host state has a tremendous amount of responsibility, but we do as well just integrating and making contest improvements. Doing the Angus Mentorship program, obviously you probably see us a lot in the ring. That is a really big job to be the very best ring stewards that we possibly can and just giving juniors the very best experience that we can. So it's a busy week and we all kind of go different directions. So my personal responsibilities this week is definitely that Angus mentorship program, and I'm pretty integrated into the judging contest that's about to happen down on the floor. So just

Mark McCully (05:01):
Kind of near and dear to your heart.

Jonwyn Ayres (05:02):
Yeah, very, very special to me all. Yeah, very special to this group.

Miranda Reiman (05:06):
Yeah, thank Good. Well, we talked about yesterday that inaugural showmanship contest, but you kind of already alluded to, so today is judging contest, CAB Cookoff will be this afternoon. What kind of are you looking forward to?

Jonwyn Ayres (05:17):
Today is definitely a contest day, very oriented that direction. And then tonight is our annual meeting where we will hear from our new junior board candidates as well as some different bylaws, and it's really just our awesome dinner where we all come together as junior members.

Mark McCully (05:34):
Yeah, fitting contest started this morning, team fitting contest. It was going heavy up there this morning earlier.

Miranda Reiman (05:42):
Oh boy. And these juniors are talented. Yeah. Mark always says that if he had to fit against the crews that are out there today, you wouldn't stand out.

Mark McCully (05:51):
No, not anymore.

(05:53):
Well, I'd stand out just not in a good way. Yeah, I'd stand out.

Miranda Reiman (05:57):
So before we introduce our guests that we have with us today, why don't you just give us your elevator speech on who is Jonwyn for anyone who doesn't know you.

Jonwyn Ayres (06:04):
Awesome. Well, yeah, so I predominantly, I'm an Oregon native but did grow up as well in the Montana Junior Angus Association. Moved back to be closer to some family in Oregon and was a past Oregon FFA state officer. Took a year off and then really took a big leap of faith and went to junior college all the way out in Illinois at Black Hawk and then was really grateful to be recruited down here to Stillwater at Oklahoma State University to just continue on the livestock judging path. Right now, my undergraduate is in animal science with a concentration in pre-law. I'm very interested in actively applying to law school. That's kind of my path and my direction. So I'm really excited to be here with some really awesome guests right now. Sitting with us is Sam Jordan from Savannah, Missouri, and Tucker Stagemeyer from page Nebraska, some really talented juniors that we've kind of always known of each other in the livestock judging realm and always excited to look at good stock

Miranda Reiman (07:07):
And you guys have something in common and that everybody's sitting at this table has recently, I guess everybody but me has recently been involved in some international experiences

Mark McCully (07:17):
In the last 60 days.

Miranda Reiman (07:19):
Maybe we'll start with Sam because you're fresh off the, are you even in the right time zone, Sam?

Sam Jordan (07:23):
I am now

Miranda Reiman (07:25):
Very good.

Sam Jordan (07:27):
So we traveled to Scotland. We left the 18th and just got back a couple days to go, but we went to the Royal Highland Show to compete at that competition. And so we got the invitation to go through the National 4-H competition. We were third at Louisville, and so that gave us the invitation to go to Scotland and to have that experience, which was very, very cool. Things are a lot different in that part of the world, but it was very intriguing to get to see the different perspectives and views that they have.

Mark McCully (07:53):
It's a little bit about your background. You live just north of St. Joe?

Sam Jordan (07:56):
Yeah, so I live in Savannah, Missouri, and we are about 15 minutes from St. Joe, the headquarters for American Angus Association. I'm graduated from high school this spring and I'm attending Redlands Community College in El Reno, Oklahoma this fall. And I'm very excited. I'm going to go the ag business route while I'm in junior college and I plan on getting into nutrition once I transfer to senior college. Very good.

Mark McCully (08:18):
Fantastic. You're wearing a K-State hat, so is that the plan for the four year program or to be determined?

Sam Jordan (08:26):
Well, that's not decided yet. All my family has gone there. My sister will graduate next year from K-State as well. Very good, very cool.

Miranda Reiman (08:35):
And then across the way here we have Tucker. So Tucker, you were part of the crew with Jonwyn and two other teammates that traveled down to the World Angus Forum, Garret and Claire that went to the World Angus Forum

Tucker Stagemeyer (08:46):
Yeah, it was about a two week trip that flew out to Sydney, had a bit of a day to tour around and then things picked up with contests and definitely kept us on our toes throughout the week. There wasn't a lot of downtime, but I thought our team meshed really well together. Got to see a lot of good cattle and seeing the appreciation for Angus cattle internationally was very eye-opening and pretty neat experience.

Miranda Reiman (09:12):
Good. And talk a little about your background. So you're a Nebraska native as I understand up in my husband's home country, in your part of the state.

Tucker Stagemeyer (09:19):
Yeah, sure thing. So I'm from northeast Nebraska, grew up on a diversified farm and ranch operation, so registered and commercial cows, corn and soybeans, all under pivot. And then a big part of our operation is custom backgrounding, which would be a mix of partner and owned cattle. So yeah, that definitely set me up well for the contest being involved in a little bit of everything. But I just graduated from Butler Community College. I was on the livestock judging team and we were named team of the year, so that was a pretty neat honor.

Mark McCully (09:48):
Congratulations.

Tucker Stagemeyer (09:49):
Then here this fall I'll be attending Kansas State University, majoring in ag econ with a pre-law option.

Miranda Reiman (09:57):
A couple of lawyers here.

Mark McCully (09:59):
Good for us.

Miranda Reiman (10:00):
Yeah, that's right. Very good. So talk a little bit about your guys' team and how we understand you earned your way there, but how did you guys get selected for that team, for the World Angus Forum?

Tucker Stagemeyer (10:12):
Sure. It was an application process and then after that there was a personality test we took and well, I was honest through it, but that was certainly something I didn't anticipate, but I think it really proved itself. We got along so well and knew each other's strengths. And then a lot of prep beforehand, we had some Zoom meetings with some Australians. The meats judging portion we probably weren't as well versed in, especially because they have their own system down there for meats judging. And so we had a Zoom for that to prepare and then just to learn the basics about just how they run stuff.

Jonwyn Ayres (10:54):
I really think it was one of the most unique applications I've ever filled out and I really appreciated that personality test just because what was interesting about our team, Miranda, is that really a lot of those teams in Australia already knew each other and we knew of each other and we had had a lot of prep, but we really hadn't been put into high stress or competitive situations yet. And what really just deemed to be true was that that personality test helped but helped us mesh tremendously and all the different backgrounds that were represented. Claire Stevenson up in Montana has a tremendous background as well as Garrett Handsaker from Illinois. We all came from all different walks of life and all different perspectives, but it was really, really fun to come together and really prove ourselves when we at first were quite intimidated that everyone already knew each other.

Mark McCully (11:46):
Well, and the US hadn't sent a team, a youth team to the World Angus Forum in forever

Miranda Reiman (11:50):
You were our guinea pigs

Mark McCully (11:52):
And so yeah, we didn't know exactly how to help prepare you guys. Right. But I know in the application process it was really about finding a team that has some diverse backgrounds. We did look at behavioral assessment just to kind of get some idea, is this team going to gel or you guys spent a lot of time together,

(12:11):
Yes, yes. And just make sure, again, under pressure that the team was going to really work well together. And you guys, the news is out and it's been out for a while and you guys did bring home the number one spot and was a champion youth team in Australia at the World Angus Forum, so very, very cool. It worked

Miranda Reiman (12:28):
U-S-A,-U-S-A. It's pretty exciting. I reread that story last night just to familiarize myself. You guys had a lot of contests that you had to compete in. Maybe give us a rundown.

Jonwyn Ayres (12:40):
I think that's an understatement

Miranda Reiman (12:42):
And had to take care of cattle

Jonwyn Ayres (12:43):
At the same time.

Miranda Reiman (12:44):
I didn't know that part of it. That was,

Tucker Stagemeyer (12:47):
It's what between contests, we worked a little showmanship with the heifers to get 'em used to us and get them figured out. And so yeah, we didn't even really have a break in between

Mark McCully (12:59):
My favorite on your showmanship heifers, she still had glue from her eye patch on, is that right? But you had to get clipped out and

Tucker Stagemeyer (13:06):
Yeah, we got 'em unclipped and so we had to get them roughed out and then that would've been the day after the fitting contest, I believe. So at least she was looking in a little better shape. But

Mark McCully (13:19):
You guys had her by the end, I mean

Tucker Stagemeyer (13:20):
She did well for us

Mark McCully (13:22):
She was broke, she

Jonwyn Ayres (13:24):
We got her broke quickly. She did not start out like that.

Mark McCully (13:26):
You transformed her.

Jonwyn Ayres (13:27):
It was rough at first. Both of those females were actually coming out of heat and one of the females was really, really hairy and we had to completely rough her out and full fit her in one hour, which how our style of American fitting is we touch every single hair and we're trying to perfect every single piece we can. And in an hour I was quite intimidated, but we did get it done.

Tucker Stagemeyer (13:51):
But no props to the breeders there in Australia that trust kids basically with their heifers. And that was pretty impressive.

Jonwyn Ayres (13:59):
The organization and behind the scenes was so eye-opening and so interesting. So to answer your question, just a few more contests was there was a debate contest. There was a tremendous amount of different farming and application processes about anything from fencing to safety protocols to backing up a bumper pull trailer with a manual that is the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the vehicle. So that was a challenge.

Miranda Reiman (14:26):
You didn't practice that on Zoom?

Jonwyn Ayres (14:27):
We did not practice that on Zoom. Claire really came in handy there and from showmanship to that team fitting and livestock judging, and I know I'm missing some, it was

Tucker Stagemeyer (14:43):
The cattle handling.

Jonwyn Ayres (14:43):
The cattle handling was very,

Tucker Stagemeyer (14:44):
I enjoyed that. Pretty familiar. That was pretty interesting. I've never been challenged as to how well can we sort on foot and I think that we

Miranda Reiman (14:53):
...like I have, do you know my dad?

Jonwyn Ayres (14:56):
Well, yeah,

Tucker Stagemeyer (14:59):
That's a challenge every day.

Jonwyn Ayres (15:02):
But to just be with new people around cattle on foot, we really just said it's going to be okay guys, get after it. We're going to sort 'em.

Mark McCully (15:10):
You guys did awesome.

Miranda Reiman (15:11):
Wow. That's a pretty diverse set of things to be prepared for and to then go do in another country. At least the language was the same, but I heard you guys talking earlier and Sam you as well, that even when the language is the same, the words aren't all the same in the accents make it difficult

Sam Jordan (15:26):
It's difficult to understand them. I was having troubles understanding some of the natives there, but eventually I started to pick up on it towards the end of the week. But it was definitely a little challenging to pick up on.

Miranda Reiman (15:37):
Sure. Talk a little bit about your experience. So you were there strictly at a judging contest. Would that be what we would imagine as our judging contest here? Were there differences

Sam Jordan (15:47):
Completely different in terms of the way they're formatted. So it's a very fast paced contest on the floor. You only have four minutes per class and so you are moving quick. So there was four classes, but I was the last group to go in. By the time our group got in there, we had one minute left. They already started before everyone got in.

(16:05):
So it's I

Mark McCully (16:07):
Speed sorting.

Sam Jordan (16:08):
Yes, yes. I kind of enjoyed it just because you can't second guess yourself. You just have to stick to the basics and fundamentals and go from there. But it was definitely fast paced. But the thing that was interesting for me was that we had two hour break and between when we were on the floor and when we gave reasons, so they would just let us roam around the Highland Show for two hours before we gave reasons, which in a contest we'd sit in America, we'd sit down in a chair and we'd stay there. We can't move. And so that was a lot different, but reasons that was interesting. They didn't have a reasons order. So I was the fifth one to go. They just randomly pulled people. So they called my name Sam Jordan from Missouri and you didn't know which set you were giving. So we had a set of shorthorns and we had a set of Angus heifers and as you walked up to the table, they told you which set you were giving. So it was like extemporaneous reasons.

(16:55):
So you had to have all your sets prepped, which there was only two, but you had to have them prepped before you walked up to the table. You didn't know which set you were giving,

Miranda Reiman (17:02):
So which ones did you get to give?

Sam Jordan (17:04):
So I gave the shorthorns first and I gave the Angus second, but it was a little intimidating walking up to that table, not knowing which set I was giving

Miranda Reiman (17:12):
For Sure. Yeah.

Sam Jordan (17:13):
And it's not 1, 2, 3, 4. It is here, it's A, B, X, Y, and so just spitting out A, B, X, Y is pretty difficult. I wouldn't think it'd be as difficult as it was, but saying I placed this class A, B, X, Y in a different order,

Miranda Reiman (17:30):
Not even A, B, C, D. I'm like,

Sam Jordan (17:31):
No, I struggled with that to be honest.

Miranda Reiman (17:35):
I would believe that. And that was for everybody? They weren't just like, we're going to give this American block something different.

Mark McCully (17:44):
Well, and you guys in Australia, the livestock judging contest was different. It was more like you were a show, right?

Jonwyn Ayres (17:50):
Yeah, the reasons was a microphone and we could see the cattle, which was so different. You never get to peek back at the livestock when you're giving a set of reasons. It was interesting because I'm just not in that mindset. I should have just thought, oh, I'm judging a show right now.

Mark McCully (18:08):
That's really more what it was like.

Miranda Reiman (18:10):
And then could people listen to 'em, was the...?

(18:13):
So that would be intimidating. That was, yeah. And did you all have to give reasons?

Tucker Stagemeyer (18:20):
No, just two individuals from the team did.

Miranda Reiman (18:22):
So clearly you nominated Jonwyn for sure.

Tucker Stagemeyer (18:24):
Yeah, she knocked it out of the park. And the debate as well. Debate was pretty neat. Jonwyn's a terrific public speaker and all of us took part in that. But no, certainly a lot of public speaking involved and I thought the whole team did great in that regard. Came second in the debate, but no, that's something I'd never been a part of before.

Miranda Reiman (18:49):
And Jonwyn came away with the award for

Mark McCully (18:53):
William McLaren Memorial Award that was given for, it's a combination of judging and speaking.

Jonwyn Ayres (18:59):
Yeah, that was a very

(19:00):
Exciting and an absolute honor. At that point we didn't know that we were the world champions, so it was really, really special. And then just the grand finale was really, our jaws were on the floor a little bit. It was a big surprise because throughout the entire competition we were not just consistently placing first. We didn't really know a lot of the results by the end. And so many things were so different that there was really no expecting what was about to happen around the next corner. So we were absolutely so grateful and it was pretty surprising. It was a pretty special moment there in Australia.

Miranda Reiman (19:43):
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Miranda Reiman (20:31):
Now back to the conversation,

Mark McCully (20:35):
Sam, over to the Royal Highland. We're jumping back and forth in these different events, but they're both such cool events. How many teams, how many countries would've been represented there that you competed against?

Sam Jordan (20:45):
So I don't know the exact number, but there was teams from across the world, a lot of Scottish teams, Ireland, there was a bunch represented there. America actually had a lot of teams there. We had three Texas teams, Wyoming, Colorado.

Mark McCully (20:59):
You can qualify different ways, right?

Sam Jordan (21:00):
Yes. So you can qualify through 4-H and FFA. We qualified through 4-H, but you can qualify through a multitude of different American Royal, the Louisville, multiple different livestock events. So there was a lot of US representation there, which is very cool. That's very cool.

Miranda Reiman (21:17):
And you were judging multi-species,

Sam Jordan (21:19):
So you got to pick in between cattle or sheep. Those are the only two that you get to judge there. So our entire team just chose cattle because we thought better be, we are all cattle kids. Actually I heard from a lot of the kids that did the sheep side that they were pretty similar to what we see here for breeding sheep. But they said that they actually blew a whistle and the handlers would actually go catch them in a pen. They'd run after 'em and go catch 'em and it was very different than what you normally see.

Miranda Reiman (21:48):
Sure. Hands on. Yeah.

Mark McCully (21:50):
So maybe outside of the contest, talk about some of the other things you got to see in the country maybe Sam, what are some of the things you guys got? You said you got to go walk around the show. Did you get to go kind of tour the countryside a little bit?

Sam Jordan (22:00):
Yeah, so the first couple of days we just toured the show and looked around and the show is huge. It's an Illinois state fair, 10 times bigger than that. It's acres upon acres of activities and different things. And so it actually took a couple of days to get through. It would probably take you about two hours to walk from one side to the other. That's how big the show itself was. But then the next couple of days we went to St. Andrew's and looked out on the beach and then also the historic golf course that is there. So we got to go through there and look at the golf course and all the different buildings and architecture. I'm not the biggest history person, but I loved looking at all those cool buildings, how they designed those and how they're still standing today was very intriguing to me. We also went to Edinburgh and went through the castle and went through the different churches, which was very, very interesting to see. So it was very cool. We stuck to those two. The tour itself is actually in London right now. They went from Ireland to London. Fortunately we had to come back for some obligations that we had here, but it was very

Miranda Reiman (22:57):
Junior nationals.

Sam Jordan (22:57):
Yeah, a couple junior nationals. But the couple of days that we did get to tour, it was very cool just to see all those different things.

Miranda Reiman (23:05):
And how about those of you guys in Australia? Did you have any time to tour between the packed schedule?

Tucker Stagemeyer (23:12):
Yeah, so we were able to take in the Sydney Opera house, which is really neat. We took a ferry across the bay, which is only 60 cents for us Americans. So it was pretty economical, but we got to go to the beach after that first day. We got to see quite a bit just because there wasn't competitions yet. My highlight, I like cars and racing and stuff and one day it wasn't on the itinerary, I believe we went to Mount Panorama circuit, which is the biggest race track in the southern hemisphere. That was really neat to see and we actually took the charter bus on it and went for a hot lap, but that was a little bit of a touring round we saw.

Jonwyn Ayres (23:53):
Yeah, and some of the other places were really, really interesting cattle operations and actually in Australia they call registered operations studs. So the very first time we show up to an Angus stud is what it's referred to, I'm thinking, oh, we're going to go collect some bulls and I'm about to see some sires. Well there obviously was some bulls there, but it simply was a seedstock operation that had registered Angus cattle and it was really cool just have those conversations about the industry to see the different priorities of not only different ranches and operations and studs that were happening in Australia, but just also the other participants that were there with us and other competitors. I absolutely love striking up some conversations with them, not only about pedigrees but just about priorities. So interesting and just gave me and gave all of us such a worldwide view perspective of the things that are out there. I really liked that that broadened our horizon absolute dream come true to be able to compete for not only American Angus Association, but we did refer to ourselves as Team USA. And so it was not only a blast but an absolute honor that was very, very eye-opening.

Miranda Reiman (25:08):
Did you guys find that the cattle business was a lot different in these other parts of the world or did you find a lot of similarities?

Tucker Stagemeyer (25:14):
Well, grass fed beef is certainly a bigger thing there and I'll be honest firsthand, I thought it was kind of odd, but after you come to Australia, you realize they're making the most out of the resources they have and corn isn't as abundant down there as it is up here in the states. And so that'd be a reason why their cattle are finished so different. We toured a feedlot is about 55,000 head. We were told the cattle get docked heavy if they have too much mud tag on 'em. So most of 'em were bedded down with wood chips. Feedlot said they spend two and a half million dollars a year on wood chips, compost them and then sell 'em to macadamia nut farmers. So that was certainly

Jonwyn Ayres (25:56):
Very, very long fed out cattle. It was very interesting. Yes,

Tucker Stagemeyer (25:59):
10,000 head of them were Wagyu, which are on feed twice as long as the Angus there. So no, just a lot of tidbits that are so much different and just in that area where the feedlot was, they have some irrigation there which would be similar to home and those pivots were like Zimmatics and Reinkes, which are made in my home state in Nebraska. It was cool, which was pretty neat to see.

Miranda Reiman (26:22):
Yeah. Did you also experience where you saw some American genetics over there lines that you recognized?

Jonwyn Ayres (26:28):
I loved seeing some prefixes that I definitely knew and seeing some bulls that I had even used on my own cows. So I think it's very, very interesting to have those conversations that were actually much more similar than we are different. The more you just speak with a producer, the more that, I mean the gentleman who allowed us to use his heifers had very similar priorities to us. We were looking at rib shape and how maternal they are and how much longevity they're going to offer while still having a little bit of look for the show ring, but very, very square and good cattle look a little bit different just in terms of their silhouette, but very functional. Every operation we went to, I did think that they read with so much function and I really enjoyed that.

Mark McCully (27:16):
Did you notice type differences in Scotland?

Sam Jordan (27:18):
There were definitely a little bit more type and kinds that we see here. We actually had a little crash course session on what they look for before the contest. And so we were talking to a couple of the breeders or what they're looking for, what traits they are desiring. And so there was a lot of similarities. We look for, look for maternal presence, they look for function like we do here. Maybe the way they go about that is slightly different, but the basics are the same. They look for foot quality, look for maternal quality and all those things are very similar. It's just maybe like she said, the silhouette is a lot different and so the way you have to look at them is different from what you would see here

Miranda Reiman (27:56):
And you were giving your reasons to a Scottish panel there. So you wanted

Sam Jordan (28:01):
I don't know if they understood us fully, but we tried to keep our reasons.

Mark McCully (28:05):
Did you change your reasons and change your placing to try to fit or did you judge 'em like you would've judged them here?

Sam Jordan (28:11):
So we tried to fit what they were desiring just because we knew we'd do better obviously

Mark McCully (28:16):
Because you're trying to win the contest.

Sam Jordan (28:18):
And so they actually use master professor at the beginning of their set. They will say Master professor, I placed this class, whatever the placing was A, B, X, Y. And so that was very intriguing for me and I've never said anything like that before.

Jonwyn Ayres (28:32):
The A-B-X-Y-I can't get over

Sam Jordan (28:35):
It's different. But what we kind of did as a team was just kind of tone down our reasons, make 'em a lot more simplistic. They look for about that 40-second mark. They don't want anything longer than 40 seconds. So it's a very just short sweet get to the point

Miranda Reiman (28:48):
I'd fail

Sam Jordan (28:50):
Which, so it was fun just because you kept it basic and actually they used their notes there. None of us used our notes just because it would mess with us personally, but they used their notes and so it was a lot different the way they did things.

Jonwyn Ayres (29:04):
I thought strategizing, we had a lot of team meetings of are we going to mold ourselves to a different practice? And I just remember one conversation that we had there, Tucker in the makeup area before the showmanship contest and I go, we're going to show like we show, right? And you go, of course we are. And we showed like we show, and that worked out in our favor, but it was extremely interesting to mold our mindset. But really a lot of the judges at the World Angus Forum were looking for who does the best high quality job in terms of just that skillset and maybe how that country practices it. So we fit the female like we would here at the National Junior Angus show. We showed 'em just like we would here. We gave a set of reasons. I did not look at the cattle, Mark. I turned around and gave it just like it was at a contest. So that was very interesting. So

Miranda Reiman (30:00):
That probably leads into a question about did you guys learn anything about yourselves while traveling abroad?

Mark McCully (30:06):
Had you traveled internationally before?

Sam Jordan (30:09):
I never have.

Mark McCully (30:10):
You never had, Jonwyn, you hadn't?

Jonwyn Ayres (30:12):
I had with my grandparents. It was my dream because I didn't quite qualify in high school to go to Scotland. So it was my dream to see some Angus cows and papa and grandma took me on a trip of a lifetime. So I have been grateful enough to be abroad, but not in a competitive sense.

Tucker Stagemeyer (30:29):
Well yeah, I got baptized in fire. I'd never flown alone before. Sure enough, I flew international by myself. That was the first time.

Miranda Reiman (30:38):
Like a 15 hour flight,

Mark McCully (30:39):
If we're going to do this,

Jonwyn Ayres (30:40):
What was yours, Tucker? 16?

Tucker Stagemeyer (30:42):
Yeah, I flew direct from Dallas to Sydney.

Jonwyn Ayres (30:47):
You learned something about yourself on a 16 hour flight

Tucker Stagemeyer (30:50):
With my cowboy hat in my lap. That was not very comfortable.

Miranda Reiman (30:54):
Should have bought one when you got down there,

Tucker Stagemeyer (30:56):
Oh, I don't know. That's not quite my style.

Mark McCully (30:59):
They wear a little different hat. Well, I think just traveling internationally is just that in and of itself is experience. But I'm sorry, your question is a great one

Miranda Reiman (31:08):
So the question was yeah. No, I'm kidding. Did you learn anything about yourselves while traveling?

Tucker Stagemeyer (31:14):
I'd say adaptability was probably the big thing for me. Just such a change whether it was not eating fast food every other day like I did back in college or on a serious note. Just there are different practices over there like livestock judging. You had approach it with the mindset that they have their own priorities or studying for new things like the meat judging contest, which had its own outline or familiarizing yourself with the metric system a little more. Just some things like that I would say. Yeah,

Jonwyn Ayres (31:49):
On some calculations I go, Tucker, don't convert 'em back, don't convert, keep 'em the same

Miranda Reiman (31:56):
Math skills.

Mark McCully (31:59):
Sam, did you learn anything about yourself traveling internationally?

Sam Jordan (32:03):
I'd say the same thing, just adapting to how they do things over there. Obviously the judging contest was a lot different, so we had to adapt to what they were prioritizing, what they were looking for. But just the simple things, all the phone chargers, all the outlets are completely different. I realized in our hotel room you have to leave your key card in a certain slot to actually keep the electricity on. And so it is just a lot different. So just adapting to those changes. There was no air conditioning, so you had to figure out when to close the window and open the window. It was cool.

Jonwyn Ayres (32:33):
I would say just echoing obviously the adaptability, but also just the awareness. You're in a new culture, you're with new people and you're in a competition setting all in the same time and you're touring with your competitors. So that was all very, very interesting. But I think we really grew to love it. And by the end, I really just reflected on that positivity and resilience is really what held true on that specific success. Just every single contest afterwards we go, we did our very, very best and we believed in ourselves and we're going to roll on to the next thing. And so I think we all learned so much about ourselves and we also learned about our strengths and how to quickly, quickly tap into your strength because we had no idea what was about to happen next, especially on some of those modules. And quite literally what our team would eventually do is look at someone and give them this look of Tucker, you got this,

Mark McCully (33:28):
You're in man

Jonwyn Ayres (33:28):
And you're the lead on this one. We will all follow. So just different pieces of adaptability and just how to be so positive and contagious in that way to believe in ourselves and it really paid off in the end and it's just an amazing thing to even reflect on and have a conversation about.

Tucker Stagemeyer (33:47):
I'd say one thing to add on would be we met so many different people and really there's few things we had in common, but the common denominator was Angus cattle and how I was able to connect with people from across the world because we shared the same interests. I thought that was pretty neat to realize that and

Miranda Reiman (34:08):
Probably met some lifelong friends now.

Mark McCully (34:10):
That's what I was going to ask if you kept in contact with any of the folks you've met with internationally?

Jonwyn Ayres (34:16):
All of the World Angus Forum competitors. We are still in a live group chat. No kidding. So it is,

Miranda Reiman (34:23):
That's got to be a 24 hour thing.

Jonwyn Ayres (34:25):
So yeah, at 2:00 AM my do not disturb is definitely on Snapchat because they do like to blow it up at certain times of the day when we are not available. That's very good. But I think we do the same back, so it's all good

Tucker Stagemeyer (34:40):
Yeah, it's cool to see afterwards has been really neat to see Snapchats of people's places and where they're from and just the trip hasn't ended yet in my mind. I'm still seeing so much more new stuff from that.

Jonwyn Ayres (34:54):
And in that very group chat, if this is easy enough to follow the world Angus Forum competitors were at the Royal Highland Show, so we saw pictures of those competitors that were competing from that area and they were having a blast. So it's so interesting that the world is connected and we all love Angus cattle and just an amazing dream of an experience.

Sam Jordan (35:21):
I kept in contact with a couple that Scottish people there and like you said, it's interesting to see their operations and how they do things. And so just keeping in contact and we all have the same connection. They're not necessarily Angus people, but they are in the cattle industry. And that's one thing we all did have in common. We met a lot of people also from the United States. There's a lot of people there that I did not know before and we all became a very tight knit group and worked together very, very well. And so that was very cool just to not only meet people from internationally, but also within our own states.

Miranda Reiman (35:54):
Yeah. That's kind of a wrap up closing question. Is there anything that you have done in the National Junior Angus Association that helped prepare you for this experience? Or if there's other kids maybe looking to have international experiences as they get to be older members? Are there things that they could be doing now?

Tucker Stagemeyer (36:13):
I would say absolutely. Obviously livestock judging, it's been touched on, but the skillathon contest, whether it be the retail cut ID or the feedstuffs ID, that was certainly applicable to what we did overseas. I'm glad I took part in things like that just to, I guess, deepen your knowledge for preparing you to take your competition to the next stage. That was a big thing for me. Done things on the state level and then the national level prepared me here through the National Junior Angus Show and then to advance it to the next level is pretty neat. Certainly built off of each other. So yeah, I encourage juniors to take advantage of the opportunities that are here. You don't know what they'll prepare you for.

Sam Jordan (37:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of educational contests here that have prepared me very well, whether that's more on the speech side of things, public speaking, that helped a lot. I've done a lot of those growing up through the National Junior Angus Show, and I think that just helped me in general communicating, working with others, but also the livestock evaluation side. That's actually where I got started doing livestock evaluation, was here at the Junior Nationals. And so it's pretty cool working your way up and looking back and saying, this is where I started. Now I'm internationally judging livestock too, so there's a lot of different educational contests here that you definitely need to take advantage of.

Jonwyn Ayres (37:34):
Oh, the door was definitely a piece of that was definitely opened because of the American Angus Association, specifically the National Junior Angus Association and just how it has molded, I think each and every one of us. But speaking personally, it's just molded me into the leader and the person that I am today was really because of not only these conferences, but because of the competitions that we have been a part of here within the National Junior Angus Association specifically. One of the coolest parts was when we got done with showmanship and we kind of all looked at each other and we go, holy moly, we just showed a cow in Australia. How cool was that? So amazing. And just so grateful that the association saw that light in us to send us.

Tucker Stagemeyer (38:22):
Absolutely.

Miranda Reiman (38:23):
Well, as there are youth listeners listening, I think that's good advice for them and to the adults that are maybe listening to these podcasts that just tells you the investment that you've made and how it's paying off and we appreciate that support of our juniors

Jonwyn Ayres (38:37):
Yes, juniors say yes to everything. You never know where it will take you or maybe what country you'll land in.

Mark McCully (38:44):
I think anytime there can be any sort of study abroad or just touch another culture, I mean, I think we're Americans and we tend to see the world through American eyes and it's just to get on in some of these other countries and just see how they view things different. Australia is a great example. 85% of what they produce is exported, so they think very globally. They think about export markets all the time. We tend to think about it as 15% of what we do or less. And so just, again, that's specific to the industry, but just in general, seeing different ways of life, different ways that you plug your phone in the wall, right? All this stuff I just think is so eyeopening and builds perspective and I always encourage young folks if they get any opportunity, little or big to take it.

Miranda Reiman (39:30):
Amen. So we always wrap up in a random question of the week, although I'm so random, I forgot it yesterday. But today's random question of the week, we're going in to the fitting contest and this question is courtesy of Megan Silveira, our managing editor. You, it's got to be a quick snappy answer. Are you ready for this? If the regional managers had a fitting contest, who would win?

Tucker Stagemeyer (39:52):
Oh, Will Harsh.

Miranda Reiman (39:54):
Okay.

(39:56):
Jonwyn's panicking.

Sam Jordan (39:56):
Adam Conover.

Miranda Reiman (39:57):
Okay, Adam. Alright.

Jonwyn Ayres (39:59):
Ooh, those were good ones. Those were good ones.

Mark McCully (40:01):
It's not Kurt Kangas

Jonwyn Ayres (40:03):
Not. Yeah, Kurt.

Miranda Reiman (40:06):
That's literally what Holly Martin said, too.

Jonwyn Ayres (40:09):
Oh boy. I'm just have to back those votes.

Miranda Reiman (40:11):
No, you've got to pick your own.

Jonwyn Ayres (40:13):
You know what I'm going to give. Let's go Quanah.

Miranda Reiman (40:20):
We know that's wrong.

Mark McCully (40:23):
It sounds like we need to have maybe a celebrity RM fitting competition or something at the next national junior show to settle this.

Jonwyn Ayres (40:31):
I agree.

Mark McCully (40:33):
It can be wagers, it can be a Foundation fundraiser. I think we got a big idea here.

Miranda Reiman (40:37):
Yeah, I think you're right. We're on it for next year. Well, thank you so much guys for sharing your international experience with us. I think those of us who have been watching and cheering you on from the sidelines, it's really fun to get to hear a little bit more about those experiences.

Mark McCully (40:51):
Yeah. Congratulations.

Sam Jordan (40:52):
Thanks for having us.

Jonwyn Ayres (40:53):
Thank you.

Tucker Stagemeyer (40:53):
Yeah, thank you.

Miranda Reiman (40:55):
Thanks for listening to the Junior takeover of this podcast. For all the results, behind the scenes stories, and extra photos from Tulsa, be sure to pick up your September copy of your Angus Journal. Not a subscriber? Visit angus journal.net to learn more. This has been the Angus Conversation. An Angus Journal podcast.