Second string judge

[aj]

I was just thinking. When a judge is selected for say a state fair show. Is there ever any thought to having a backup judge. Like the NFL has a backup referee on grounds in case one of them gets smashed and injured. It would seldom be needed but I spose a judge could come up sicker than a dog show day. What happens if a loved one has a wreck or the judge is hit by a truck in the parking lot. A judge could miss a flight due to bad weather, get drunk and get throwed in jail! Maybe its never been a problem. In theory it could happen. Then what do you? Cancel the show?

 

[iowabeef]

I had never thought about that....I suppose we are all pretty lucky that hasn't been needed before.  I would think they would postpone until another qualified judge could get there.....How many majors or state fairs have the same judge two years in a row? 

 

[DLD]

That's why most of the big shows try to get the judge in town the night before, to allow for flight delays, etc... Still, it does happen sometimes. I can recall several last minute replacements at various shows I've been to over the years.  Once at our county spring show (that's the big one for us) we were s'posed to start at 12:30, and at 1:00 still no judge.  We called his office (he's a CEA) and they told us he had just left for lunch.  We asked if they were sure that was where he went, could he be on his way to judge our show?  No, they were sure he was coming back to the office.  We asked for his cell phone number and they wouldn't give it to us, but they'd try to call him.  They put us on hold and moments later came back to say that his cell phone was on his desk.  Since he was two hours away, we called an ag teacher in a neighboring county that could get there in a half an hour, and he came and judged for us.  The guy that was supposed to judge called us after his replacement had already gotten started - said he just forgot, even though one of our superintendents had called him and reminded him just the day before. We call all of our judges first thing the morning of the show now...

 

[twistedhshowstock]

I honestly dont think many people think about this.  Often times though at most major and state shows you see 2 rings going at one time. SO I suppose they could just drag things out and get the one judge to judge everything.
I grew up in Louisiana and I dont know about state shows other places, but both our state fair and state show almost always called a judge for 2 yrs in a row, but they may rotate which breeds they judged in those years.
On a similar topic to a fair board that did consider a judge maybe not being able to make it. Back in the spring I was contacted about judging a smaller county show in West Virginia.  The livestock superintendant apparantly liked some of my posts on here and thought that their growing program would benefit from someone from outside of the area who would do more than just place the animals and leave, but rather spend some time to help the kids learn.  I am in Texas and wouldnt have even been able to cover my travel costs for what their judge budget was, so I told him while I would love to help I just could not afford to do that. A few days later he called me back and said he thought he could work something out and asked me to send him a price.  I quoted him a price that was basically my travel expenses plus $200 and I was going to be there for 3 days judging their entire show.  He called me a couple times to say that he was really trying to work it out and really wanted me to judge as he liked my opinions and attitude toward helping the youth learn, etc. So finally I told him that if he could get my expenses covered.  He called me the next day and said the Fair Board had agreed to my original price and to let him know if I neeeded any assistance making travel arrangements. 2 days later he called me back very upset, apparantly the treasurer of their fair board had indeed thought of the possibility of travel troubles coming from Texas and called an emergency meeting in which he convinced the fair board that they should only approve hiring a local judge so they were rescinding the request to have me judge.  I completely understood the idea and wasnt upset, but my warning to them was.  Even if the guy lives across the street you cant prevent unforseen complications at last minute.

 

[iowabeef]

Getting them in the night before isn't always a good idea....I heard a story about one of the breed judges at the Iowa State Fair coming in the night before and having a little too much fun at the local gentlemen's establishment.  Show started late because they had to drag him out of there. <rock>

 

[aj]

I wonder if a judge has ever been kicked in the show.

 

[kfacres]

at our national sale in june- our judge helped show in a different breed, right before our show was due to begin... 

he left to go back to the hotel to change clothes, etc...

our show was due to start 2 hours after he left-- after delaying the show for nearly an hour and half- we decided to have the auctioneer (also very well respected juged, start the show...  he ended up judging the ram show, picking his champion.. and then.. our first judged finally showed up to do the female show.. He was pissed that they started w/o him... but hey, everybody else was pissed that henever showed back up...

 

[JoeBnTN]

I was just thinking. When a judge is selected for say a state fair show. Is there ever any thought to having a backup judge. Like the NFL has a backup referee on grounds in case one of them gets smashed and injured. It would seldom be needed but I spose a judge could come up sicker than a dog show day. What happens if a loved one has a wreck or the judge is hit by a truck in the parking lot. A judge could miss a flight due to bad weather, get drunk and get throwed in jail! Maybe its never been a problem. In theory it could happen. Then what do you? Cancel the show?

I've been on both sides of this and it's rare, but it is a problem. Once while judging at one of the larger state fairs, I was hired to do four breed shows and the junior steer show.  Another well known breeder was judging the rest of the breed shows.  The day I was supposed to finish he was supposed to start.  As he was starting his first show he began to feel sick - turns out he had food poisoning.  He finished the show he had started but couldn't go on.  The show caught me at the hotel and asked if I could come back and work another two days.  They took care of working everything out, airlines, room, etc.  and it worked out.  They said that's why they liked to overlap judges, just in case.

Another time I was supposed to judge a  major winter show in the south.  The contract called for me to start at 1:00 and that was confirmed the week before, so I had a flight that would get me there around 10:30 (with a backup flight that arrived at noon).  Unfortunately, the person who did the program onsite, put that the show started at 10:00 and switched the 10:00 show for the one I was to do.  Everyone, including exhibitors and the show management thought that was correct, so they were ready to go.  Unfortunately I was still in the air.  Fortunately the  judge show as supposed to do the original 10:00 show didn't get the message either, so we just swapped shows.  Worked out fine except the type of cattle we each preferred was a little different - so breeders who came expecting me to judge (or him in the Simmy show) got a little different opinion than they expected.  The only people embarrassed was the show management.

My experience would lead me to believe that most of the bigger shows have back-up plans in place.

 

[DLD]

I wonder if a judge has ever been kicked in the show.

Got a story for that one, too AJ. Way back, many, many moons ago when I was in the 10th grade, I had a pretty good Angus steer that was  prone to kicking.  Judges could handle him, but they had to come up and stand by me and start at the shoulder - then they could work their way back and handle him pretty much anywhere.  Bob Kropp was judging, and I warned him each time he started to handle him, and he was getting along fine.  We won our class, and we're out showing for champion. He's going back and forth between my steer and another one, next thing I know he walks up behind my steer and reaches around and grabs his flank.  The steer kicked and caught him on the upper inside part of his thigh, he nearly went to the ground.  We went from being in the hunt for champion to not making the premium sale, and I got cut in the first round of showmanship. Luckily, Herefords showed before Angus (this was back in the graphite powder days), and my Hereford steer did make the sale...

 

[Will]

This past weekend at the Arkansas Oklahoma state fair the judge for the steer show was a little late (30 minutes ) because someone stole his car from the hotel during the night.

 

[aj]

ouch