Southeast Minnesota's Region 8 will be sending 10 dairy judging teams to the state FFA convention next year as two teams from the region placed in the top five in the Career Development Event.
Caledonia placed first, the second year in a row the high school has had a team place first in a Career Development Event at state. Last year, the team's General Livestock team won.
It is the first time in 32 years that Caledonia has had a dairy team place first in state.
The state's No. 2 FFA dairy judging team is just an hour away in Lanesboro. The three-person team of freshmen includes the state's top dairy judge, Haely Leiding.
"We were happy with second," Leiding said.
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Their goal is to return to state competition next year with a fourth team member and place in the top five once again. Their goal is to make it to the National FFA Convention.
The last time a Lanesboro dairy judging team placed first at state was in 1997.
About 30 minutes down the road is Rushford-Peterson High School, home to the No. 2 high individual in dairy judging and the state's dairy handler.
Cole Theede, a senior, placed second in the Dairy Cattle Evaluation Career Development Event. Hope Morrison, a sophomore, won the Dairy Handler Career Development Event.
