MAINE-ANJOU Junior Update
WHITNEY WALKER LEADERSHIP CHAIRMAN
Happy New Year everyone! I hope that all of y’all had a very Happy Holiday Season, and with the turn of the New Year, we are all anticipating the start of the National Western Stock Show in Denver and the exciting new updates to the yards! My name is Whitney Walker and I am in my second term on the American Junior Maine-Anjou Association (AJMAA) Board, serving as one of your Region 1 Directors and Leadership Chairman. I am from Prairie Grove, Ark.; where my parents, Eric and Linsay Walker, raised my brother, Mason, and sister ,Catelyn, on our family ranch where we run 600 head of Maineinfluenced and Simmental cattle. I am now a freshman at Oklahoma State University, studying Agricultural Business and Agricultural Leadership. Although all three of us kids grew up showing cattle, we have found our passions in different areas as we’ve gotten older, where Mason enjoys the goat industry, I still love the cattle industry more than anything, and Catelyn was a trailblazer and dove into working cow horse competitions! No matter where we all spend our time, all three of us would tell anyone that the Maine-Anjou breed will always be the place we come back to! This past November, the American Maine-Anjou Association (AMAA) had the honor of holding our 50th Anniversary show at the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) in Louisville, Ky. The days were long while working the ring; but, the quality of livestock and friendliness of the exhibitors that came through the ring made it so worth it. From the High Maine show to the MaineTainers, there were so many high quality cattle that any MaineAnjou breeder would be proud to stand behind! That same weekend, we held our annual meeting, where we got to hear from Mr. Mark Core of Iowa and finding our “True North”, we honored Kenny and Audrey Bremer of K&A Farms with the Heritage Road Hall of Fame Award, and celebrated the progressive growth of our breed! We hope to see each and every one of you in Denver and Fort Worth in the next
few weeks. Along with the upcoming shows, don’t forget to mark your calendars for May 31 - June 3rd for our National Youth Leadership Conference (NYLC) for our junior members in Kansas City, Mo. This is an event that Lindsey and our junior board have been wanting to re-initiate and we are all so excited for this year and we hope that all you kids and parents are too! You won’t want to miss out on the chance to learn, grow and make lifelong friendships. We wish everyone a safe trip to Denver and we’ll see you there!
2019 AJMAA BOARD OF DIRECTORS President - Dalton Line, Illinois Vice President - Kaleb Miller, Iowa Secretary/Treasurer Adelyda Ebersole, Iowa REGION 1 Whitney Walker, Arkansas Dalton Line, Illinois REGION 2 Kaleb Miller, Iowa Tejlor Strope, Nebraska REGION 3 Cameron Luedtke, Texas Blakelee Hayes, Oklahoma AT-LARGE Madison Loschke, Kansas Adelyda Ebersole, Iowa Cade Van Vliet, Iowa Cade Austin, Wisconsin Cassidy Barker, Missouri 2019 ROYALTY QUEEN Mattison Beattie, Nebraska PRINCESS Emma Yochum, Ohio Jacie Wolfinger, Nebraska AMAA YOUTH COMMITTEE Jirl Buck, Oklahoma Brian Fox, Colorado Andy Jones, Illinois JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
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