Livestock judging is a more than a century-old competition that remains alive and well in South Dakota. And South Dakota State University collegiate livestock judges work to prepare the next generation through a livestock judging camp held each summer on the campus of SDSU in Brookings.
Under the guidance of the collegiate judging team, elementary, middle and high school youth receive hands-on experience judging beef cows, pigs, sheep and meat goats during the three-day camp. SDPB’s Lura Roti has this story.
Livestock judge Colton Stiefvater defends the way he ranked a class of breeding gilts through a set of oral reasons.
The 15-year-old from Salem is among 140 youth working to fine-tune their skills during a livestock judging camp held on the campus of South Dakota State University this summer.
Hosted by the 2022 Collegiate Livestock Judging Team, this camp provides youth with an opportunity to practice judging multiple classes of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.
“The best way to learn is when you’re hands-on and learning through experience because there is plenty of things you are going to mess up on that you can see in the classroom, but you’re going to forget about it once you judge. So, I think the more you judge and hands-on the more classes you do, definitely you’re going to get a lot better,” Colton Stiefvater said.
For more than a century youth like Stiefvater have competed in livestock judging. It is a competition that was introduced by land grant universities like South Dakota State University to teach farmers and ranchers how to select the best animals.
True to its roots, livestock judges learn how to rank livestock based on their structure, body shape, functionality and quality. All important characteristics when raising the highest quality pork, beef, lamb and goats for consumers. Brady Jensen is the SDSU Collegiate Livestock Judging Coach. He says today’s judges learn much more than how to select superior animals.
“Livestock judging has evolved to be a lot more than what they ever dreamed it would ever be. Originally just for the intent of training young people to better at evaluating livestock, to now, what I believe is one of the best career-ready activities that an Animal Science or college of ag student can do when they are at SDSU or another college campus. It improves youth by making them much better at many skills, time management and decision making as well as thinking on their feet,” Brady Jensen said.
Senior Animal Science major Martha Moenning agrees. She says that traveling nearly 30,000 miles across the U.S. for livestock judging competitions has opened her eyes to unique career options. After college she hopes to work in research and development for a food company – and one day, she hopes to own a farm-to-table restaurant.
“Those are some dreams and aspirations that I would have never thought was possible, but Livestock Judging has given me the confidence to believe in my dreams, because I have seen how putting work in, similar to what I have put in with livestock judging has allowed me to achieve great things,” Moenning said.
Serving as a camp counselor during this camp brings back fond memories for Moenning.
“It’s where I wrote my first set of oral reasons and learned everything that kinda started my passion for livestock judging. This is a full circle moment for me now, being back here and being able to teach the kids because I know I was in their shoes several years ago,” Moenning said.
Oral reasons is the portion of the contest where youth defend the way they ranked the animals in a specific class. As a camp counselor, Moenning and the other members of the Collegiate Judging Team listen to youth give their reasons and provide tips and feedback to young judges.
2022 is the first year Creighten Werning has attended judging camp. And the fourth generation South Dakota cattle producer says he’s learned a lot.
“This is my first year in the junior program. In the past years I have not had to do oral reasons, it is really helping me. They give me a walk through with every set of reasons I give,” Werning said.
Werning said he was inspired to livestock judge by his dad, Scott Werning, who served on the 2005 SDSU team.
“My dad was successful and I want to follow in his footsteps,” ,” Werning said.
Preparing the next generation of judges to carry on this time-honored tradition is among the reasons the SDSU Livestock Judging Team hosts this camp each summer.
Again Brady Jensen.
“It’s really important to get the youth right next to a gate looking over a pen and studying the livestock. …6:45 I always tell the students; no two animals are ever the same. To really become excellent at this craft of livestock judging I always say, the more animals you see, the better. Because every animal brings a new story to the table, getting the chance to see almost 100-head of livestock in three days, here is a tremendous experience here for the youth at this camp,” Jensen said.
In 2021 the SDSU Collegiate Livestock Judging team coached by Jensen was named Reserve National Champion Team at the North American International Livestock Exposition. Brady Jensen says the team is eager to achieve more success in 2022.
