Missouri student will spend six months in Italy studying Piedmo

Missouri

The Piedmontese Association of the United States announced recently that Rachel Graves, 18, Ewing, has been invited to spend six months studying Piedmontese cattle in Italy. She will be the guest of ANABORAPI, the official Italian Piedmontese cattle breed organization in Carru', Italy. "We are proud of Rachel's achievements, and very pleased for this opportunity for her. We feel that she represents the bright future for Piedmontese cattle in the United States," said Dennis Hennerberg, president of PAUS.

Graves' host family in Italy will be a Piedmontese cattle breeder member of ANABORAPI. She will live on a Piedmontese cattle farm and learn Italian farming methods. ANABORAPI will provide instruction in evaluation of Piedmontese cattle and the ANABORAPI Piedmontese breed improvement program. Graves will have the opportunity to attend the National Piedmontese cattle show in Carru' in November 2006.

Graves graduated from Marion County R2 School, Philadelphia, Mo., in 2006, where she was a member of the National Honor Society. She has been raising and showing Piedmontese cattle since 1998. She is active in her high school FFA Chapter and was a member of the local 4-H Club for nine years. Graves plans to attend Northwest Missouri State University beginning in January 2007.

Piedmontese cattle provide the premier beef cuts for the Italian meat market. The herdbook for Piedmontese cattle was established in Italy over two hundred years ago, and the Italian breed organization, ANABORAPI, is actively engaged in breed improvement to satisfy the needs of worldwide Piedmontese cattle breeders. "I chose Piedmontese cattle for my herd because of the value they add to my cattle marketing program," Graves said.

Piedmontese cattle were first imported into Canada and the United States in 1984; the number of Piedmontese cattle in the United States is increasing rapidly. The unique traits of the cattle offer increased profitability to the producer and attractive entrees for health conscious American consumers.

Graves has raised and shown purebred and crossbred Piedmontese cattle at local fairs and at the Missouri State Fair since she was nine years old. Her steers have won the Performance Steer Championships several times, and in 2005 her Piedmontese crossbred steer was the Grand Champion Market Steer at the local FFA/4-H Junior Fair. In 2005 she won the Senior Division Showmanship Award at the Missouri State Fair. She has exhibited her Piedmontese crossbreds in the Open Carcass Class at the Missouri State Fair where her steers placed in the top 10.

Graves has been active in her high school FFA Chapter where she has held various offices including vice president in 2005 to 2006. She has earned the Star Farmer Chapter Award and the Beef Production Entrepreneurship Chapter Award. Graves also received the State FFA Degree at the Missouri State FFA Convention in 2006.

Graves was a member of the Missouri 4-H Champion Livestock Judging Team in 2005 that competed at the National Livestock Judging Contest in Louisville, Ky. She placed ninth individually in livestock judging in the state of Missouri in 2005.

Graves was the first junior member of the Piedmontese Association of the United States. She is also a junior member of the Missouri Beef Cattleman Association.

As a member of the PAUS Show Committee, Graves helped organize the first Junior Showmanship classes sponsored by PAUS at the NAILE in Louisville, Ky., in 2005. Her purebred herd began with one heifer purchased in 1998. She has raised and shown a National Grand Champion female, National Reserve Champion female, National Heifer Calf Champion, and a National Reserve Champion Bull two consecutive years. All of these animals are offspring of Rachel's first heifer, who is now a Gold Trophy Cow.

Graves also enjoys riding horses, and is active in her church youth groups. She is the daughter of Bill and Brenda Graves, Ewing, and the granddaughter of Carl and Susan Graves, Ewing, and Bill and Jeneta Weltha, Winterset, Iowa.

For more information about Piedmontese cattle, Call Beth at the PAUS Office, Elsberry, Mo., 573 384-5685, or e-mail paus343@yahoo.com, or check the Web at www.pauscattle.org or www.anaborapi.it.

Date: 8/24/06

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