October 1, 2018 – In an effort to bring communities proper training and knowledge when it comes to animal judging, Prairie View A&M University’s International Goat Research Center hosts a goat judging workshop and judging contest each summer. This past July, more than 40 youth and adults participated in the goat judging workshop where they gained valuable skills that will help them select the type of goats for their farms and projects that will be healthy, productive, and profitable.  Participants were taught the proper terminology to describe the traits of the goats and how to use scorecards to evaluate goats based on what the industry has developed as the proper conformation for meat goats and milk goats.  Being a good judge not only involves the ability to select good goats, but you also must be able to explain why the goats selected are better.  To help the participants improve their organizational and critical thinking skills as well as their ability to make decisions and communicate, the workshop was heavily focused on how to prepare and present reasons for why the goats placed in the order that they were.

On the second day of the weekend-long event, 4-H members representing 10 counties competed in the State 4-H Goat Judging Contest.  This program is very well supported by the community with several local breeders and two regional goat associations aiding with animals and funding. This contest is an opportunity for the youth to display the skills and knowledge that they have gained from their projects to be able to evaluate and place eight classes of milk goats, meat goats, and miniature goats against the placings of leading goat industry judges. All youth participants also completed a written test that covered the tools used for judging while the senior 4-H members had to prepare and recite oral reasons for their placings of two of the classes.

The Senior Division winner was Michaela Martin from Wise County.  Michaela has competed in this contest since she was 9 years old, and has won at every level.  She plans to join the list of winners that have gone on to attain a professional goat judging license and has already passed some of the things that she has learned to other youth in her county, state, and a 4-H group in Mexico that she has helped to coach.

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, 1890 Extension Formula Program project under Section 1444.

Scott Horner
Research Specialist
sdhorner@pvamu.edu
(936) 261-5087