Show Cattle Team
After a successful first year in 2021, The TGS Show Cattle Team is set to continue in 2022. The program will be a hands-on approach, with boys attending a local stud to work with and prepare cattle, as well as participating in local and Royal Agricultural Shows on weekends to present the cattle and participate in judging competitions.
The aim of these competitions is to develop the parading and judging skills of young people to cultivate experienced judges for future Agricultural Shows. Competitors also improve their communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
There are two main competitions that the boys will be involved in: Young Paraders and Young Judges.
Young Paraders:
The Beef Cattle Paraders’ Competitions showcase young people in the Beef Cattle Industry. The Young Paraders parade an animal under real judging conditions, demonstrating their handling and parading abilities in a professional manner. The Beef Cattle Paraders’ Competitions educate and encourage young people though adjudication by their peers and experts in the Beef Cattle Industry.
Young Judges:
The Young Judges’ Competition encourages the participants to develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving and communication through judging and ranking livestock. The focus of Young Judges is to develop the skills and knowledge of the entrants with an emphasis on their ability to justify the reasons for their ranking of the animals. Learning to accurately rank animals is vital as is a subjective task based on the judges own production system and changing market specifications.
Students will test their skills as a judge of beef cattle for commercial and stud purposes. They will judge up to three classes for the competition: bulls, females and/or steers. Each class will include cattle of similar breeds and ages for students to consider the positive attributes and faults of each animal. After 8 minutes to assess the class of cattle, both at a walk (4 mins) and standing (4 mins), students will rank them in placings of 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th. After reviewing all Competitor’s placings, the top placing competitors will then justify their placings to the competition judge in a 2-minute oral presentation.
Competitors will receive two scores from the competition judge:
- How correctly they place the cattle in order (compared to an experienced judge).
- Their oral presentation skills – clarity when justifying their placings.
Young Judges’ Competitions are also available for Stud Sheep (Meat and Wool), Poultry, Dairy and Prime Cattle and students would be encouraged to participate in all competitions that are available at a show.
Young Judges and Paraders, among other livestock competitions, offer significant personal and professional development opportunities for students. The ability to network with, and learn from, industry leaders while developing skills such as public speaking and personal confidence is a rare opportunity. To do this in a setting that develops interest and skills in agricultural careers provides a great platform for young people to become involved in the industry.
Co-ordinator: Jack Murphy