Judging Aids.....

Im going into my last year of judging with my high school ffa team and would really like to try to win state cde and was just wondering what anyone on here recomends for practicing and really improving.  weve had a team for the past three years and two of those we went to state but didnt do so hot.  I am also asking so i can better my skills for when i go to college and try for a team at south dakota state.  Ive been watching livestockjudging.com and its really helpful.  what other free resources are there out there either on the internet or that i can obtain from schools or extensions? thanks for the time.

Judging is kinda like being on a sports team...The way you get better is you have a good coach & you practice. A LOT! Kids with natural talent will always have the most potential, but anybody can apply him or herself and get pretty good. You'll never be as good as you CAN be trying to learn online or with pictures or doing it alone. Or even with support from people who aren't REALLY good & who understand the art of evaluation. If you don't have that person, try to recruit somebody. Look around your community for somebody who gets it and ask him or her to volunteer to train & coach a youth team. You need somebody who will push you & elevate your game.

we do have a good coach who helps us as much as he can.  im just looking for ways to practice on my own to improve myself personally.  I have been told i had a natural talent for evaluation and feel as if i do also and just want to try to better myelf.  i plan on attending badger livestock judging camp to learn more

Well, ur doing what u can do then. I would try to see as many pairs / classes as I could see & talk reasons. Even if nobody listens, you'll practice evaluation, selection, & terminology and you'll improve delivery & flow of oral reasons. If you don't have access to live animals, you can make classes out of photos & judge them just like ur looking at real animals. Talk reasons to a mirror or a fence post or a cow laying in the field! There's nothing you can do with photos that will better prepare you than seeing live animals, but keeping yourself tuned in will help, regardless of how you do it. Just don't burn out!

Practice, practice, practice.  I cannot overemphasize the imortance of good coaching.  Find someone that knows what they're doing and do what they tell you to do.  I was fortunate enough to have good coaching in my high school FFA.  I was the high individual and a member of the chamipion team in the state FFA dairy and dairy products judging contest.  Never had a dairy cow on the place.  I was on a top 3 Parliamentary Procedure team in the state FFA contest.  I was a member of the state FFA champion meats and livestock judging team, top individual on the team.  I was the top individual on our gold medal winning state soils judging team.  I was on the ISU livestock judging team (until my wife made me 'retire' because I was gone too much).  I was the high individual in the ISU meats judging contest.  Was it because I was so smart and talented?  Probably not.  I listened, I practiced, but most importantly, I had outstanding coaching.  Same with baseball.  I don't believe I ever played on a team that lost more than 2 or 3 games in a season from Little League through high school.  Were we all great baseball players?  No.  We knew what to do and did it.  That was a direct result of great coaching.  There's lots of good people out there that can help.

Work on reasons. I spent the whole summer on a tractor talking reasons to myself, coming up with new creative things to say and working on my presentation, voice fluctuation , and ill admit, practicing facial expressions in the rear view mirror. My teammates do the same and this year we managed to take the third and final national qualifying spot at Texas 4-h roundup and will be competing at the  Royal in November. We beat out the fourth place team by two points. They came off the floor well ahead of us but we caught them in the room. The top end will always come off the floor decent, it's reasons that place a contest. When your bored just make up a class in your head and come up with a set and try to make it the absolute best you can. Other than that practice, practice, practice, and who knows maybe next year we'll both be competing at NAILE. 

shorthorn girl... just continue to be the "sponge" take it all in and learn the differneces.. as learn to "talk " the differnces " you'll learn to be a better stockmen and a better person. I do not regret a single moment of youth or  college judging. You'll be a better person in the end..... just trust me and look back on this experience 10 yrs from now.

Good Luck

Anything with puplic speaking, or drama, just get in front of someone and talk. Gets you used to talking without Ums and Ahs. I have heard of coaches making you talk classes of lots of stuff, not just the ususal market animals. Anything is game, makes you think of comparison words on the fly. Whatever you have 4 of. In front of the mirror is a great idea.

Hmm...I love the idea of having a team practice reasons by placing & talking a class of fruit! That sounds like a good exercise! The team I'm training is gonna LOVE this! <evil laugh>

leanbeef said:

Hmm...I love the idea of having a team practice reasons by placing & talking a class of fruit! That sounds like a good exercise! The team I'm training is gonna LOVE this! <evil laugh>

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I'll have to bring this up to our local judging team coach too!  Our 4-h team won state this year--they probably need some new challenges before the national competition.  Maybe I'll set them out a class of pumpkins when they visit our farm! (lol)

As Travis said, reasons make or break the top. My daughter's coach makes them do two sets (minimum) of reasons EACH week, and she is not even in his Ag class (she has the other ag teacher this year for crops). But, when she went to the state 4-H contest as MU this weekend, she placed 4th overall in the senior division and her team is going on to the American Royal this year to judge! (So you might see her there Travis). She will be 16 this month, and a junior in high school, so next year she will be on the FFA team for livestock judging. But their coach drives them all over the place to see live classes, they watch videos of classes during school and after school, and she talks reasons all the time (by the way, she HATES reasons with a passion!).
Anything in life worth doing takes work and practice. But victory is so much sweeter when you know you earned it  (thumbsup)

lightnin4 said:

leanbeef said:

Hmm...I love the idea of having a team practice reasons by placing & talking a class of fruit! That sounds like a good exercise! The team I'm training is gonna LOVE this! <evil laugh>

Click to expand...

I'll have to bring this up to our local judging team coach too!  Our 4-h team won state this year--they probably need some new challenges before the national competition.  Maybe I'll set them out a class of pumpkins when they visit our farm! (lol)

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I LOVE IT! Lemme know how they handle that...