Introduction to Livestock Judging

The art of judging is done by carefully observing an animal to determine how it should rate against a standard of ideals. Judging is an activity you cannot just pick up and be good at, it takes time. If you do not win your second contest but improve in your scores, take it as an accomplishment. Do not get frustrated if your friend does better than you or if you turn in a blank card, learn from your mistakes. At a contest, juniors will give three set of reasons on  sheep, goats, swine, and beef.  Seniors will have to give between three and six sets of reasons depending on the contest. 

In a class, there will be four different species of animals (swine, sheep or beef), typically with three to four classes of each species. You will have ten to twelve minutes for each class.  During this time you will need to look the animals over for both the placings and reasons at the same time. In most contests there are ten classes of animals. If there are no reasons on the class take your time and closely observe the animal but stick with you first opinion unless you know its wrong (but if they all look alike "when in doubt count them out").