Livestock judging team in action

RANGELY I On Oct. 2 and 3, Western Rio Blanco County’s 4-H Livestock/Horse Judging kicked off its fall judging trips.
Three juniors traveled to Wyoming to judge in the high school contests for practice.
Kaylee Mecham (one year judging) and two novices, Evan Urie and Sarah Conner, stopped in Cheyenne, Wyo., to participate in the LCCC Fall Rendezvous. Evan and Sarah judged horses, while Kaylee stuck with livestock.The kids had a lot of fun and even though they didn’t get their results until a couple days later, decided they wanted to livestock judge instead of judge horses. While at the contest, they went through a goat judging clinic with Joaquin Crego and enjoyed a quick visit with Madison Shults of Meeker, who was also judging.
The next day, they enjoyed judging at Casper College and Kaylee talked in the 40s on each set of reasons. Sarah scored 50s on all of her cattle classes, courtesy of Katie Colyer’s cattle DVDs. Katie’s video auction service out of Bruneau, Idaho, is a sponsor of ours and she provides us with a lot of practice material. Evan Urie did well on the pigs and seems to have a good eye for them.
The Western Rio Blanco junior team will begin working out Oct. 29 to get ready to compete in Phoenix after Christmas. They will be practicing each week until right before Christmas. If you have a child who would like to judge, contact Jeani Lucero at Rangely Extension office at 878-9495 or Bonnie Long.
A schedule of evaluation meetings will be posted on the extension office door and anyone is welcome to come learn how to look for better 4-H project animals. The meeting on Oct, 29 will be on breeding and market beef. A beef judging contest will follow directly after with prizes.
The summer of 2010 will be full of contests such as: Central Wyoming Fair, National Junior Swine show in Oklahoma, Billings, Mont., and Kearney, Neb. You must be signed up by March 1 to judge and you must participate in 50 percent of the meetings. Both judging and giving reasons will determine if you are on the team or sitting in the bleachers. Meeker judging members are welcome to join us on trips when space is available in the van. So, if you would like to judge at some of these shows, please let us know in advance.