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July Herdsire 2007 Issue
Influencing youth in the ring
by Jennifer Shike
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. And after a while, you just have to laugh about it.
“That judge has no business being in the ring!” “All she does is look at faces.” “He wouldn’t know a good one if it ran into him.”
We will always debate what judges do in the ring. And that’s OK. It’s our right to have an opinion on livestock and the people judging our shows.
But, from a show-management standpoint, let me be honest. If you want your voice to be heard about the judges we choose, spend more time praising the ones you like and less time slamming the ones you don’t. We are much more likely to listen to positive feedback than petty slams on judges who didn’t place you first.
And to go one step further, try understanding what goes through judges’ minds as they stand inside the ring. Too often, we get so caught up on which pig is going to win that we miss one of the most important jobs of a judge – to teach and influence youth exhibitors.
At the 2007 NJSA National Youth Leadership Conference, participants heard what runs through a judge’s mind – straight from the source. Warren Beeler of Caneyville, Ky., Jim McCoy of Bloomingburg, Ohio, and Dr. Clint Rusk of Purdue University of West Lafayette, Ind., joined together for a panel discussion titled, “Influencing Lives in the Show Ring.”
“That title says it all,” Beeler said. “There is so much more to judging a show than finding the winner. We are here to have a positive influence on young people.”
The panel covered a variety of topics, from how to control the atmosphere of a show to the advantages of placing a class from top to bottom and bottom to top. They addressed how to give reasons in the ring. And they shared how they started judging shows and what experiences would help our young people today become the judges of tomorrow.
I have to hand it to these guys – they did an amazing job of sharing their messages. I just wish more people could have heard it.
Beeler shared a story about how nervous he was judging his first show as a college student in 1976. He admitted he still feels nervous today.
“If you lose that nervousness, you lose it all,” he said. “If it doesn’t mean something, you won’t do a good job.”
Each judge believes their job in the ring extends beyond placing the classes and finding the champion. When we select judges for NJSA shows, we look for judges who have an understanding of this concept. We hire judges that are great teachers, in addition to being great evaluators.
“Judges have an enormous amount of power, so we need to be using that power wisely and teaching the right things as we go,” Beeler said.
McCoy added that his job is not to impress the crowd with his ability to use big words and fancy phrases, but rather to help kids understand their project better and to make the day fun for all involved.
No judge denied the importance of being able to evaluate hogs well. But, the truth is that the word “well” is subjective and can’t be measured. It’s interpreted differently by every person. The best judges climb into the ring today because they want to make shows a positive experience for youth.
“When I go home at the end of the day, I feel good about what I accomplished with the kids,” Beeler said. “If I helped one kid learn one little thing about showmanship or their pig, I did my job.”
Just as it’s important that we try to understand the magnitude of a judge’s job in the show ring, I think it’s critical that judges realize the opportunity that lies ahead of them at each show they judge.
“You won’t last long in this game if you start placing your friends and doing things that aren’t true to your character,” Rusk said. “Integrity is the most important thing that separates the good judges from the bad.”
Judges will never make everybody happy when they judge shows, so they have to do what they think is right. McCoy said that you shouldn’t judge shows to become popular. Judge with conviction because you believe in young people and the positive aspects of showing livestock, he said.
Regardless of how many big shows these judges have under their belts, they all agreed on the most important show they will ever judge.
“The most important show is the one right in front of you on a given day,” Rusk said. “It doesn’t matter whether the livestock are all good or all bad or whether it pays $25 or $250, that’s your most important show and your most important audience.”
