The Collegiate Livestock Judging contest brings in college students from junior and senior colleges and gives them the opportunity to learn and grow their judging experience. Colleges travel from as far as Nebraska to as close as right here in Dallas. This contest is made possible by many dedicated volunteers and sponsors.
Dr. Douglas Smith brought his team all the way from the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture. “We left on Thursday October 3rd and made it here Sunday the 13th,” said Smith. Smith also explained, that with such a lengthy drive, they decided to detour and visit various ranching operations and livestock facilities to practice for this contest.
Collegiate judging contests are split up into junior and senior levels; junior being community colleges and senior being four year or senior level colleges.
For each class of livestock the contestants were allowed fifteen minutes to observe the animal, record their placing order, and make key notes to help them remember the class.
After the contestants completed their observations for all the classes, they met one-on-one with a judge to give oral reasons validating their placing on certain classes. Each contestant will be allowed two minutes to give reasons on each class.
One of the superintendents for the contest, Aaron Cooper, commented on the State Fair’s version of the judging contest, “The State Fair of Texas® gives some of the best collegiate awards in the nation, from plaques, belt buckles, watches, etc. the Waggoner family has been very generous with their donations because they see value in these contests.”
The Waggoner family organized the awards ceremony following the judging contest. Capital Farm Credit generously sponsored the awards given to the contestants as well.
“We participated in these activities when we were growing up and this is our way to give back to an organization that gave so much to us when we were kids,” David Waggoner said. “It’s something that we really enjoy and we see the quality of the kids that participate at the 4H and collegiate level.”
Sponsors like the Waggoner family and superintendents like Aaron Cooper are great examples of how events such as collegiate judging never leave your heart. It takes a great amount of dedication and time to accomplish what our sponsors and volunteers do in order to put on the Collegiate Livestock Judging contest at the State Fair of Texas.
Congratulations to all those that participated in the collegiate judging contest and a big thank you to all of the people who contributed to the contest and awards banquet.