At 16, Colson “Cole” Hemling of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, is already learning that success rarely follows just one path. A member of the Beaver Dam FFA and Leipsic 4-H Club, Cole is also the starting kicker for the Beaver Dam Golden Beavers, a position he has held since his freshman year. Whether he is on the football field, in the poultry barn, or competing for 4-H and FFA, he gives everything he has.
“I’m in the Beaver Dam FFA, where I’m serving as president of our chapter. I compete in as many contests and conventions as I can,” said Cole. He’s a member of the land-evaluation, Envirothon, and poultry-evaluation teams, along with FFA leadership events. This year, his poultry-evaluation team won the state competition and is headed to nationals in Indiana.
His passion for poultry began early. “My family has been involved with poultry for as long as I can remember, from a very young age.” Today, he spends much of his summer at his family’s game-bird farm, operates a hatching business, and raises his own show flock.
“What I enjoy most about poultry is the breeding -- selecting the right traits I want in my next batch and my next year. I want to see improvement in my genetics and select from the birds that are the best.”
That passion comes full circle at the Dodge County Fair, where Cole shows his chickens through 4-H. “In 4-H, I’m a member of the Leipsic 4-H Club. I’m involved in 4-H through participation at the fair, going to meetings, and with the events our club runs.”
For Cole, the fair is about both competition and community. “I like showing at the Dodge County Fair, because it’s fun. I’m good friends with everyone here who just loves chickens. I also like to win and see my hard work pay off.”
Showing poultry has directed Cole along a lot of different paths. “I started with showing just show chickens, and that brought me down one path. Now I have my hatching, and that started me on another path -- so just a lot of different things.”
Those paths now include football, band, robotics, dairy, a desire to play college football, and a future that could take him in many directions. “I’m a math person,” Cole says, noting his interests in business, finance, actuarial science, insurance, and engineering. “It’s fun to build stuff, think things through, and design.”
Yet agriculture remains at the heart of his vision. “For my future, I want to continue with poultry through my high-school career, but I also want to keep agriculture overall as part of my life through college and past that. My overall dream is to be a farmer, maybe for a career or a hobby farm with a few animals and some chickens. We’ll see, but that’s my end goal.”
For Cole, the fair, 4-H, FFA, sports, and all the opportunities in between are helping him become more than a competitor, they are guiding him in discovering who he wants to be. “It helps me branch out and be a better person and a better leader in my community.”
Visitors can look at Cole’s chickens in the poultry barn during the 2026 Dodge County Fair through Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026.
Written by Dori Lichty -- farm wife, 4-H and FFA Mom, and full-time communicator
