Alyse Armstrong | Contributing Writer
Contest Day Time-line
- 5:30 a.m. Wake up and get ready
- 6:30 a.m. Leave hotel
- 7:00 a.m. Arrive at Fairgrounds, receive pep-talk from coach
- 7:30 a.m. Get seated in arena, get cards and contestant number
- 7:45 a.m. Get organized into groups
- 8:00 a.m. Begin judging first rotation (6 classes)
- 9:00 a.m. End of first rotation
- 9:30 am Begin judging second rotation (6 classes)
- 10:30 a.m. End of second rotation, be transported to hotel for reasons
- 11:00 a.m. Lunch and begin preparing reasons
- 12:00- 5:30 p.m. Reasons rotation (6 sets)
- 5:45 p.m. Find coach and discuss classes
- 6:30 p.m. Listen to critique and figure out points dropped
- 7:45 p.m. Leave Fairgrounds go to dinner
- 9:15 p.m. Return to hotel, post contest team meeting
- 10:30 p.m. Bed time
For the past year and a half myself and five other students who participated on LBCC’s Livestock Judging Team have endured many days like the time-line above.
For those of you whom have never heard of livestock judging, it is a competition in which students from schools across the country individually evaluate classes of livestock, that have been judged by a committee of professionals who decide the official placing and decide how many points students should be docked for not placing the class as the officials did.
There are four animals in each class and contestants rank the animals from best to worst. Species that are evaluated in livestock judging include beef cattle, sheep, swine, and occasionally goats. Certain classes at each contest are designated as ‘reasons classes;’ this means that students must create and give an oral presentation to one of the officials that describes the animals in the class and then explains why they were placed in the class the way they did.
An entire livestock judging contest normally takes about eight hours and is mentally grueling. Awards are given both to individuals and teams who excel in individual species, and oral reasons.
Students begin training as freshman, and work diligently to improve their skills for a full year before they begin to compete in contests as sophomores. To prepare for livestock judging contests, teams must practice evaluating livestock and giving oral reasons several times a week and must sacrifice several weekends to improving their skills.
Most competitions are held thousands of miles away from Oregon and require the team to spend quite a bit of time missing school in order to travel and compete. With a significant amount of practice and traveling across the country to several different competitions, team members are extremely busy and have little time for homework.
The Linn-Benton Livestock Judging Team began their season this year before Fall term began by attending a competition in Wichita, Kansas; where they won the beef cattle division and placed fourth overall.
Excited about their success and wanting to maintain their competitive edge the team practiced relentlessly and pushed one another to be the better. One of the larger competitions LBCC’s team participates in is the North American International Livestock Exposition which is hosted in Louisville, Kentucky.
At the Louisville contest, the team was ninth in oral reasons, and sheep, and were tenth in beef and overall. Pleased with their success LBCC’s team spent two weeks over winter break practicing, and worked harder than ever to perfect their skills. During the first week of winter term, Linn-Benton’s Livestock Judging Team traveled to Denver, Colorado for the National Western Stock Show their final and toughest competition.
The team had a great day in Denver, they were 9th overall, 4th in sheep and goats, and Cody Lacy was fifth in the car load contest.
Over the course of the season, the team bonded and gained a sense of comradery both in and outside of practice. Drawn together by their busy schedules, competitive nature, sleep deprivation, and most importantly their love of the livestock industry the LBCC Livestock Judging Team began to view each other as family.
While many of you may not know much about livestock judging, you should know this, it is an activity that challenges critical thinking skills, improves public speaking, teaches life skills, draws teams together, and has a practical application to real life in the agricultural industry.
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