4-Hers learn through judging contest

Put four people in a room and ask them to pick the best of anything, then tell you why, and you'll probably get four different answers on any given day.

Now, multiply that by 10 and you've got the annual livestock judging competition Friday at the Crawford County Fair in Girard.

More than 40 4-H'ers braved the heat in the Lawrence Murphy Show Arena to test their skills against a judging committee. They faced selected examples of steers, sheep, heifers and hogs, four critters at a time, and recorded their rankings on a series of score cards.

Then, for the older competitors, they had to go before a judge and defend their decisions.

Alan Boultinghouse, agriculture teacher at Girard High School, is one of the organizers of the event. Before the young people enter the show ring, Boultinghouse gives them instructions on how to mark their score cards and to be sure they use the correct, color-coded card for each bunch of animals.

Points are given, with higher scores the closer the competitor comes to the rankings established by the competition committee. Being able to defend their decisions in a well-reasoned manner can earn the competitors even more points.

The top competitors receive a trophy for their efforts. But the real prize is less tangible, Boultinghouse said.

“One of the main reasons livestock judging is good for any kid is it teaches them how to think on their feet and how to defend why they placed the class the way they do,” he said. “Being able to explain why they placed that class and defend that is probably the most important thing judging teaches you.”

Garrett Kays, 14, of Weir, a member of the Success Express 4-H Club in Pittsburg, agreed. Kays prefers the sheep portion of the judging. He's more familiar with the critters because he shows them in the ring, he said.

Judging “makes me able to think quicker,” Kays said. “It helps me be able to tell what kind of quality and animal has, what kind of meat it will produce.”

To set the standards the the 4-Hers have to aim for, the committee studies how judges in the different contests have been placing animals throughout fair week, Boultinghouse said. That reflects current trends in both competition judging and the livestock industry in general, he said.

“We have to stay in tune with what the trends are and what judges are looking for,” Boultinghouse said.

The competitors can also gain valuable insight for the judging by watching how the judges are ranking their top animals and listening to the comments. That gives them a base standard to start from when they're in the ring, pencil in hand, and they're the judges.

The competitors can also watch Internet videos of judging competitions for practice. Just going out an looking at animals in the pasture or the barn yard can help.

“The more they go out and judge, the more they're going to be able to go out and see what the standards are,” Boultinghouse said.

Livestock judging competitions have probably been around as long as livestock shows. The first FFA livestock judging event was held in 1929 in Kansas City, Mo., Boultinghouse said. And, as farming operations get bigger and fewer young people are choosing agriculture as a career, the judging competitions could foster an interest in a new generation and bolster the industry as a whole, said Dean Stites, county agriculture agent for the K-State University Extension in Crawford County.

“This exposes them to some things in agriculture that, maybe someday down the road, they'll realize might be something they want to get involved in,” Stites said. “We've got some serious problems out on the farm, in terms of who's going to be farming the ground 50 years from now, and we have a big agriculture industry out there that needs good people.

“As I look at these kids, there's a lot of people out there that have a lot of talent. Hopefully someday they'll develop that talent and get involved in agriculture. That's a lot of what we're doing here at the county fair.”