Alf Takes Over as WLBA Director

By Sarah Watson, Livestock Editor
Thursday, May 8, 2008 10:48 AM CDT

The reigns of the Wisconsin Livestock Breeders Association have been handed over into safe hands. An active member of Wisconsin’s livestock industry the new WLBA director, Jill Alf, is familiar with the educational purpose and goals of the organization.

Her passion for animal agriculture and the people involved in agriculture makes her a great new leader for 95-plus year old organization.

With her new position, Alf, who resides in Edgerton with her family, will be leading the charge for Wisconsin livestock youth - something she believes is important for the state’s livestock industry’s future and is up for the challenge.

Challenge is nothing new for this mother of three. She has raised her children and a flock of sheep, while her husband, Larry, spends a lot of time working away from home.

To keep things going at home, she has relied on her children, John, a sophomore and UW-Platteville majoring in animal science and ag business; Jordan, a senior at Milton High School; and her daughter, Jessica, an energetic 13-year-old.

Energy will be essential for Jessica and her mom in the coming months as Jordan plans to join John at UW-Platteville in the fall, leaving his daily chores behind.

Jill has adjusted to her eldest son being gone for the daily activities on their 25 Hampshire ewe operation.

“He loves Platteville,” she says. Although he loves school, John still takes time to come home and help when he can.

“He comes home a lot of weekends,” she says.

When John’s not home, Jordan and Jessica step up and get the work done. The Alf children are responsible for morning chores before school and in the evening.

During lambing, John comes home as often as he can, but Jill, Jordan and Jessica take the majority of the shifts observing the flock and feeding any bottle lambs.

Jill says she’ll have to make adjustments without the strength of her sons on-hand for throwing around feed bags or handling the animals.

“Jessica said ‘we’ll do it the girl way’ when her brothers are gone” she says, laughing.

The girl way might be having feed bagged a bit lighter at the mill and working as team more than as individuals, but both Alf ladies are ready.

“It’ll be up to Jessie and I,” she says. “We’ve always figured this out.”

Jill says Jessica is very observant and spends many hours in the barn and knows when any of the lambs are sick or if something is wrong. With her natural intuition and gumption, Jill has a good worker at her side.

That reliability on her family is important and it allows her the ability to work from home.

“I always had to be the flexible one,” she says. With her husband gone for months at a time, she needed employment that would allow her to care for the flock and be able to be fully involved in her children’s activities.

In 2000, Jill became the secretary/treasurer of the Wisconsin Sheep Breeders Cooperative (WSBC). She had been very active in the cooperative’s events and was encouraged by other members to apply for the job.

At first she didn’t think she wanted to take the job because she didn’t think it would work. However, she decided it would be beneficial.

Her children were all in school at that point and this would be her way to stay involved in the industry and build her job skills if she ever decided to or it was necessary to start a career outside the home.

When the WLBA position opened, Jill knew she wanted a chance at the position.

“I had heard that Marv and Ruth were stepping down,” she says about the long-time directors of the Association.

Knowing her children had benefited from the WLBA and having attended the events, Jill thought this would be a good opportunity for her n diversifying her sheep background to include swine and beef cattle. The position just seemed like a good fit.

“I knew the type of job I really liked,” she says. “Agriculture is my passion.”

The WLBA position would combine her skills as a 4-H leader, WSBC secretary/treasurer and a youth advocate all into one.

She has always been impressed with her own children’s abilities and credits their ability to communicate with other youth and adults, leadership skills and overall livestock knowledge to organizations like the WLBA.

“I can attribute that to livestock organizations and events,” she says.

Fostering and growing Wisconsin youth into successful young adults involved in agriculture is important, she says.

Currently, Alf is getting “a handle” on everything the WLBA entails n the behind the scenes work.

She plans to continue building on the program that the previous directors created, but adding a few of her ideas as well.

Jill will be following very prominent leaders, Marv and Ruth Espenscheid. After 17 years of serving as the WLBA directors, the husband-wife team, stepped down to spend more time with their family.

New projects Jill is working on for the WLBA is the creation of a website.

“It would elaborate on the programs available,” she says.

Currently the WLBA is linked on the UW-Madison animal science Extension website. The new WLBA website would house general information about the WLBA, the educational and scholarship programs, show camps and district shows. It would also provide calendar of events and entry forms.

A second idea, a need expressed by both Espenscheids and herself, is a livestock judging camp. The WLBA provides livestock shows and show camps, but the addition of a judging camp would be beneficial not just for the youth, but for the state.

“I think there is a real need,” she says. “I think there’s real interest there.”

Encouraging youth and creating the judging aspect would hopefully spark more interest in the youth to become not just better showmen, but also understand the how and why behind it.

Sparking interest would hopefully help keep the youth interested through the collegiate level, she says. Hopefully it would encourage judging interest at the university level and keep the youth here in Wisconsin instead of looking elsewhere for schools providing judging competitions.

Looking toward future challenges, Alf sees fundraising at the forefront, but credits Marv and Ruth for turning the WLBA around and getting more financially stable than it has been in the past.

“Marv and Ruth did an amazing job,” she says.

Jill will continue to work on finding new funding through creative ways.

Currently on the docket for this year is an opportunity at the Wisconsin State Fair Governor’s Blue Ribbon Auction. The Governor’s Blue Ribbon Auction Committee has given the WLBA an opportunity at the sale.

The WLBA will be auctioning off an educational banner n representing the educational programs the WLBA offers. Besides contributing to the education of youth across the state, the purchaser would receive a basket of goodies, possibly including tickets to Badger, Brewer and Packer sporting events, along with gift certificates for weekend getaways.

“We’ve got a lot of hope for that,” she says.

The WLBA is collecting items for the basket along with leads on sporting event tickets. She’s hoping this will become an annual event.

“It would be a way of getting funding on our own,” she says. She hopes this different, broad-based approach will appeal to businesses and their desire to support youth.

As she takes on her new role and learns more about the WLBA, Jill is excited to meet the families of the WLBA and be a part of the youths’ skill development.

“Their confidence builds, their skills build. Just watching that growth is really rewarding,” she says. “I’ve been looking forward to watching these kids grow up.”

At each event and show, Marv and Ruth amazed Jill with their ability to call each participant by name, and looks forward to the day when she can do the same.

“I think that is what I look forward to the most,” she says. “Watching these kids bloom.”

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