Clayton County finished third in the 2009 4-H/FFA State Livestock Judging Contest Junior Division held August 29 in Ames. The team scored 1,249 points out of a possible 1500 points. Team members included Nick Boehm, Elgin; Keaton Lane, Elkader; Kenny Orr, Elgin and Luke Orr, Elkader. The team is coached by Matt Gaul and Dan Lane.
Individually for the junior division, Kenny Orr finished second with 440 points.
With the addition of a junior 4-H division, 106 4-H’ers -- a new record -- participated in the Livestock and Meats Judging Contests. Scott County topped the nine teams that competed in the new junior 4-H division, scoring 1,277 out of a possible 1,500 points. The Madison County 4-H livestock judging team placed first among 18 senior teams and will head to the national contest in Louisville, Ky. The four-member team scored 1,567 points out of the possible 1,800. In the 4-H Meats division, Worth County placed first and will be Iowa’s representative to the National 4-H Meats Contest in Kansas.
The objectives of the Iowa 4-H Judging Contests are for the 4-H’ers to learn modern livestock and meat evaluation methods, practice decision-making and communication skills and develop the ability to select livestock appropriate for a defined production purpose, explained Mike Anderson, agriculture program coordinator with Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development.
Each senior contestant presented sets of oral reasons and juniors answered sets of questions for the livestock contest and written reasons for the meats contest describing their thoughts on why the animals were placed in a specific order, Anderson said.
The Iowa 4-H Foundation Animal Science Endowment sponsors awards for the contests.