Agents from Allen, Barren, Hart, & Metcalfe counties pulled together to facilitate the 2022 CPC Fall Field Day Livestock Judging Contest.  The Celsor & Pedigo families want to expose youth to agriculture and help them develop life skills.  The annual livestock judging contest is staple at the Fall Field Day.   Over 400 youth from Kentucky and Tennessee participated.  Each youth was asked to evaluate 2 classes of breeding heifers, 1 class of breeding ewes, and 1 class of market lambs.  The stock is evaluated using current industry standards and time tested criteria.  The youth were divided by their teachers, volunteer leaders, and coaches into teams of 3 or 4.  If the team was comprised of 4 members then the lowest score is dropped, thus the team composite score is the top three individual scores.  Agents conducted registration, worked as group leaders, and on the tabulation team.  Due to the location of the contest, all the cards must be scored by hand.   Start too finished the contest was completely wrapped up in less than 4 hours.  The efficiency that team worked did catch the attention of CPC Commodities CEO, Ivan Pedigo.  “Your team made quick work of such a large number of contestants.” 

Teachers, volunteer leaders, and coaches were asked to offer suggestions for improvement for 2023.   The general consensus was that all registration should be done prior to the contest via email.  A small portable public address system was also suggested and will be added next year. 

A youth participating the contest remarked, “I really like coming here to judge.  Y’all make it a fun and laid back contest.”  The young lady making this statement was an 8th grader who was the 6^th overall individual scoring 191 points out of a possible 200.

There were 82 youth from Metcalfe 4-H that competed in judging contest. The youth all received three hours of livestock judging education before competing in the contest.

A senior from Metcalfe County High School said “Thanks to my agent and Extension office. This has been a great opportunity for all of us to learn how to judge livestock where we can select better animals for our own farm. I have been able to come to this event since I was in middle school. I look forward to it each year. I have learned a lot!”