Why I Judge

This week I start my annual county fair livestock judging odyssey. I think my journey will take me to eight county fairs this year and I am excited to see each one. Sure, I may not be all that excited when the alarm goes off at four in the morning or when I get back home late at night but I assure you that judging county fairs is one of my favorite activities. Many people I talk to think I am crazy for even wanting to judge but it is one of the most rewarding things I do each year.

I suspect I share my feelings with those who chose to umpire sports also. Judging county fairs and especially judging livestock shows is high pressure and you can end up the target of some unhappy parents or other adults. It can be a thankless, unpleasant job if you go about it with the wrong idea. However, I have found it to be just the exact opposite and each time I judge a show I am reminded of why I chose to spend my time in dusty show rings in the heat of the summer.

Do I have the occasional upset parent or breeder who doesn’t like the way I have placed a class or the champion I have picked?  Yes, occasionally I do have someone who takes issue with my placings and I will have a discussion with them and explain my position and even tell them that it is just my judgement on that day. Usually that is enough and they go away understanding my point of view even if they don’t agree.

Most of the time the people and the exhibitors I encounter are exactly the opposite. Often, I end up hanging around about as long as it took me to judge the show and talk with parents and kids. Nothing makes my day more than an exhibitor who wants to come up afterward and discuss their project or tell me more about their animal. These stories and those moments are exactly why I chose to judge shows.

Sure, I enjoy looking at the animals in the show, evaluating them and eventually choosing the champion but the most meaningful moments happen during the show. It might be a first-time showman who is so nervous that they look like they might drop the lead and bolt out of the showring at any time. I try to spend a moment with them, draw smile out and try to get them to loosen up a little. I remind them that while this is a competition it is also supposed to be fun. Often it is those kids who come back after the show to talk to me.

It also makes my day to watch a showman hang in and tough it out with an animal that does not want to cooperate. Maybe it is just the day or the weather conditions but the animal is just not going to do what that young person wants them to do. As a judge, you can tell who spent time with their projects and is simply having a bad day. I have a great deal of admiration for the competitor who hangs in there and continues to work hard, even when things are not going well. Sometimes just a word of encouragement and an acknowledgement that they are working hard is enough to smooth out a rough day.

What I really enjoy and the thing that keeps me coming back and judging county fair livestock shows are the young people who want to tell me about their projects. Most often these are the kids who maybe did not place very high in class but that does not keep them from being proud of their project. They are the ones who can tell me about where their animal came from, what they feed it and how they take care of them. Listening to the stories about work they did to complete their project is what it is all about.

What is even better is when I have kids (or now even adults) come up to me and tell me that I was their fair judge several years ago. Usually they proceed to tell me about what they are doing and talk to me about where their livestock projects have taken them. While naming a champion may seem to be the most important part of my job on that day at that fair, it is nowhere near as important as the lessons learned from the hard work leading up to that day. That hard work and the skills learned are why I am proud to be a small part of what happens when youth show livestock. Each year I am reminded that the most important thing I do has nothing to do with the champion I select and everything to do with the kids.