TORRINGTON – Eastern Wyoming College’s new freshman livestock judging coach and recruiter brings a history of winning to the program.

Kylie Patterson, EWC’s new freshman livestock judging coach, was a member of the two-time, record-breaking, national championship livestock judging team at Oklahoma State University. Before that, she was on Blinn College livestock judging team in Bryan, Texas.

“I am super excited about coming to EWC,” Patterson said. “This (livestock judging program) can be a very elite program. We have a great pool of talent.”

As a member of the OSU team, Patterson was the High Individual Overall in the 2019 contest at the North American International Livestock Expo in Louisville, Kentucky. She is a former ABBA Queen, All Around Champion at the All American and a Scholarship Award winner from the Brahman Association. 

After graduating from OSU, she coached at Texas A&M before coming to Torrington.

“I’ve had the pleasure of watching her mature as a studious, capable young person who cares about coaching and yet balances her academic duties with his extracurricular ambitions relative to livestock evaluation,” her former coach at OSU, Dr. Blake Bloomberg, said. “She is one of the most respected young people in the judging arena.”

Patterson brings her passion for livestock judging to EWC to help “continue the competitive foundation built by Dr. Georgia Younglove and Dr. Monte Stokes,” she said.

“Kylie’s leadership to youth development and achievement in the livestock judging realm as both a student and coach are nationally recognized,” EWC president Dr. Jeffry Hawes said. “EWC is excited to welcome her to our campus.”

She has “very high expectations,” Patterson said. The goal is to move the EWC livestock team into the top 10 among community colleges nationwide.

“Kylie is a highly accomplished livestock judge and will be a great addition to our EWC family for growing the Agriculture programs and transfer degrees at the college,” EWC Agriculture Department Head Monte Stokes said. “We are excited to add her to our staff as our Freshman Livestock Judging Coach.”

Patterson will lead the freshman team and Younglove will lead the sophomore team.

The teams will practice a couple nights a week and travel to local farms and ranches on the weekend to improve their livestock judging skills. 

“These kids work hard,” Patterson said. “I don’t want to sugarcoat it; we’re definitely going to put in a lot of effort to make sure we can get where we want to be and match the goals the students set.”

The Lancers plan to compete in four national contests throughout the season. They will compete at the American Royal Livestock Show, North American International Livestock Exposition, Denver National Stock Show, and the Houston Livestock Show. They will also compete in a number of other shows during the season.

A typical competition will have 12 sets of four animals that can be market or breeding sheep, goats, pigs, or cattle. Judging is based on a point system from the 12 sets of placing plus eight sets of reasons delivered orally for why the team members placed the livestock in the order they chose.

“Every time you go out (to judge) you have to prove yourself,” she said. “It is you, your brain and nothing else.”

After the placing of the livestock team members are placed in an isolated room where they put together their reasons for eight of the classes they judged. They then have to go before a judge and give their reasons for placing the class as they did.

“I think the ability for a kid to stand up and defend what they believe in, with conviction, and with some public speaking ability is what livestock judging truly helps garner and develop in these students,” Patterson said. “They go through all these contests and practices, hone in and develop those skills. It is truly incredible and what I love about our sport because I think that growth and development, regardless of where you come in talent wise, is second to none.”

The teams first competition will be in Austin, Minnesota on Sept. 12. It will be an all pigs contest.

“Since making her acquaintance, I have come to hold Kylie in extremely high regard. The old adage “actions speak louder than words” is a mantra that, in my opinion, Ms. Patterson subconsciously lives by,” Bloomberg said. “Her quiet demeanor and pragmatic tendencies have proven to me, through a number of situations, that she is the kind of person who can be trusted when it’s ‘fourth and goal.’”

Patterson grew up in the San Antonio, Texas area where her family had a small cow/calf operation and raised pigs. She was involved in 4-H and FFA before beginning her career path.

“My intention coming here,” she said, “is to make sure this program sees the level of competitiveness that it sure deserves, that this county, this community deserves.”