Hannah Loftin, NC
My name is Hannah Loftin; I am 20 years old and live in Troutman, North Carolina, where I have a small herd of mostly Brown Swiss show cows. I am a sophomore at the University of Mount Olive, studying to obtain two bachelor’s degrees, one in agriculture education and one in agriculture business. I plan to teach for a few years while working to open an interactive educational creamery. My start in the dairy industry was different from a traditional one, although two of my great-grandfathers had dairy farms in the 1970s, one of which milked our beloved Brown Swiss. But this is different from how I got my start in this industry.
Way back in 2016, a friend reached out to my dad asking if I wanted to show one of his Holsteins at our county fair, and it has been history ever since. My family and I met this fantastic man who saw that my family was not in a place to buy a show heifer, so he took it upon himself to buy me one. He taught me a lot of what I know about showing and introduced me to the people who taught me the rest of what I know about showing and raising show cows. The more I learned and showed, the more I fell in love.
I got my first Brown Swiss heifer for my fourteenth birthday; it was love at first sight. Muffin (my heifer) and I could have struggled through our first year of learning how to show, but we didn’t, thanks to help from everyone who taught me so much. I am very grateful for him and the rest of my show family, who taught me what I know. During my first year, several people told me that I would never be able to afford to play the game or that because I didn’t grow up on a dairy farm, I would never be good at showing. So, I did two things right then and there, I set high goals, like showing at World Dairy Expo, and I decided that I would never treat people trying to get started in showing like that.
Fast forward to a few years later, when things fell into place, and I met this great family interested in showing. I was grateful for the opportunity that I was given and wanted to give them the same. So, I found a heifer for them to use, and I taught them everything they needed to know, showmanship, how to feed their animals, how to halter break a calf, and how to wash a calf. These two kids turned into others wanting to show and needing help from the ground up, but it also turned into other youths already in the show world that just wanted some help. Whether in showmanship, fitting, or general assistance, they, for some reason, decided I was the best person to ask. I am very grateful that these children have chosen me to look up to because while I am helping them grow, they are helping me grow.
I have been blessed to reach a few of the goals I set early in my show career. First, I have been able to show on the colored shaving at World Dairy Expo thanks to some fantastic people willing to take a risk on a girl from a small town in North Carolina. But it gets better from there; this past November, I took one of my bred and owned Brown Swiss heifers to show at NAILE. I never thought I would be able to do this, but I proved myself wrong, and that little heifer and I didn’t come in last either. I also competed in the dairy Judging contest last fall at WDE. I am very grateful for all the opportunities that little Swiss calf from 2017 has given me. You never know what opportunities you will stumble upon if you are willing to try.