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Youth judges put market knowledge to test Photo by Jim Craven Crater High School FFA student Holly Mahalley makes a presentation at the Jackson County Fair Saturday to Eagle Point High School agriculture instructor Tim Ray. The competition judged students not on animals they raised but on their ability to pick out quality livestock. It's not just what they know, it's how they say it By VICKI GUARINO CENTRAL POINT -- Back and forth and around in small circles, Jean Emerson was pacing. The Phoenix High School senior occasionally stopped midstride, consulted her notebook, and then resumed pacing. Her lips moved nonstop, but no sound came out. All around her on the paved parking lot outside 4-H and Future Farmers of America show arenas, dozens of youngsters were doing the same thing. Some gestured, some paused and stared blankly into space as they tried to recall a striking characteristic about a particular steer or hog. These fair competitors were preparing to be judged in an event that measured their ability to pick out quality livestock, not their skill in raising the animals. On Saturday morning, youth judging -- the last of the week's youth livestock competitions at the Jackson County Fair, which ends today -- put market knowledge to the test. Along the away, memories and speaking skills were graded as well, as youngsters explained their findings to judges. "It's how you place them and why you placed them the way you did," Jean said, looking up momentarily from her notes. "It's tough. You get up there and forget what to say." She and other FFA and 4-H members from Lakeview to Central Point spent the first two hours of the judging event moving from pen to pen, eyeing small groups sheep, swine and cattle. They appraised both breed animals and those that would make the best filets and chops. In one market hog class, FFA students used government forms and standards to give animals U.S. Department of Agriculture grades. At other pens, they jotted notes to jog their memories when the time came to step before a judge. "I don't like the oral reasons part," confessed Ruch 4-H'er Megan Hunter, a Rogue Community College sophomore, as she reviewed her notes. "Sometimes I don't really have a reason. They just stand out to me." The competition mimicked the livestock judging these contestants all went through as livestock exhibitors earlier last week. The class was designed to drive home the business of agriculture, said Crater High School FFA adviser John Dimick. Dimick and his son, J.B. Dimick, organized the judging event and picked animals for each class. In the marketplace, animals are bought and sold on the basis of a live grade. Packing companies pay top dollar for the leanest and most meaty animals. The grade consumers see in the grocery store, that purple USDA Choice stamp, comes later. "The live grade and the dead grade are the same if the guy knows what he's doing," said Dimick. FFA and 4-H youngsters are schooled to avoid fat livestock to suit America's dining habits. Growers are paid by the pound, so heavy is good, Dimick said. "But there is no market for fat." And the marketplace, ultimately, is the objective in the youth projects. "We're trying to get them to be able to make decisions based on economic values," Dimick said. But stark realities of the marketplace couldn't sway one of Dimick's students, Jesse Warntjes, from giving highest marks to his own animal. Dimick selected many project animals -- good and mediocre -- for the competition. Jesse's steer was one. Taking every second of the eight minutes allotted at the pen, Jesse checked and rechecked his steer against the other three in the row. The Crater senior poked ribs for fat, pressed haunches for muscle, and proclaimed his own the best of the lot. As he walked off to the next judging pen, Jesse paid his animal the ultimate compliment: "He's ready to eat right now." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA