Joining a 4-H judging team
As most know, I am a lifelong resident of Gordon County. Except for my time on the tennis team at Young Harris College and my years at UGA, I have lived in this area.
My elementary, middle and high school years were busy like most youth. I was active in sports and I was also active in 4-H projects. My main 4-H projects were exhibiting steers, heifers and market lambs at either local, area, district or state shows. I was also a member of the 4-H livestock judging team. I will give credit to Ms. Jeannette Holbrook for pushing me to be on the judging team. Her son Derek and I both showed livestock.
I think after my first year of showing a steer, we saw Ms. Holbrook in town and she recruited me to join the judging team. At least that is how I remember the story of how I joined the Gordon 4-H Livestock Judging program. I can even remember my first district contest in Woodbury, Georgia held at Lemmon Cattle Company.
I will admit my oral reasons were subpar, but I must have placed classes great because our junior team won the contest. They only count the top three team member scores to make the team’s overall score. I think Derek and Lee Crump were first and second on the team. My score was third. At the time, it was not too bad of a personal showing since I was a novice at 4-H livestock judging.
Today, I hope to shed light on Gordon 4-H judging teams and encourage new members to join a team for the 20232024 4-H project season. My 4-H livestock judging journey did not end at that first contest in Woodbury. I judged through my senior year of high school. After my college tennis career ended, I even was on one of the most successful UGA livestock judging teams in school history. I tell folks that in my 4-H career, teams that I was on never finished lower than 4th place. That 4th place was at a national contest at the American Royal in Kansas City, Missouri. My high school team even finished second overall at the Keystone in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We lost that contest my one little point.
So why should a young person consider joining a 4-H judging team?
For starters, I want to clear up any miscommunication. Many families may think their young person can’t be on the livestock judging, dairy judging or even poultry judging team because they do not live on a farm. True, we do have young people who own or exhibit those species on these teams, but you do not have to own livestock to judge. When I was the 4-H Coordinator for Bartow County Extension, I coached a total of six state winning team. Three in the senior division and three state winning junior teams. Some of my best scoring youth were ones that lived in the city limits or only stepped a foot on a farm when they were at practice. We also have our consumer judging program in Gordon County where youth are put in scenarios and learn how to be wise shoppers. We even have a Food Challenge and Life Smarts team. As you see, we have a variety of options.
Again, why should a young person join a 4-H judging team? For starters, there is a tremendous amount of life skill enhancement by being on a judging team. Now that may not inspire a young person to join at an early age, but as the years go by that young person who now is an adult will value the experience. I think being on a judging team builds self-confidence. When I competed in Woodbury for the first time, I can remember walking in a class of Angus cattle. I was deciding on how I was going to rank those four animals from best to worst. It was not a group effort, it was only me. Me, the cattle, a pencil, notepad and a judging card. No one to help me except for going back mentally to the lessons I learned at practice from Mr. Jack Dyer and Mr. Joe Darby.
When you have to rank a class of Angus heifers, marker hogs or even a group of jeans in consumer judging, you are learning how to make an educated decision. You take the information and the visual appraisal and decide how that class needs to be placed. I can still hear Joe Darby say, “Study long, study wrong”. He was meaning, you only have 10 to 12 minutes to evaluate and place a class so you have to process the data, do your deciding and mark your cards. I think that is why I am a quick shopper today. I don’t play around in a store when trying to purchase an item. Judging, no matter the team will help a person conquer the fear of public speaking.
The number one fear of most adults, is the fear of public speaking. At each contest, you have to give oral reasons on why you placed a class the way you did to a qualified judge. You may still become nervous giving a speech in your adult life, but a 4-H judging team can help you conquer the fear and have the ability to speak in public.
Finally, being on team makes you a teammate. As the years pass by, it is always great to see old teammates and think about the good old days. When we earned trips to national contests, I personally saw parts of the United States that I would not have been able to see any other time.