In Future Farmers of America (FFA), there are many different competitions to help prepare students for a life in agriculture. FFA has competitions such as Creed Speaking, Ag Business Management, Horticulture and Ag Power Mechanics to name a few. All of these events help students develop life skills like communication, community skills and build a good personal character.

One of the competitions in FFA is Dairy Judging. Dairy judging is the evaluation of live cattle and pedigrees of cattle. In the Dairy Judging competition, students get awarded points for certain evaluations between different classes of cattle. A class is made up of four cattle and students have to score the cattle one to four. Based upon the score you give the cattle, incorrect scoring can allow judges to deduct from a score of fifty. According to curricular code, there are six specific classes of live cattle and pedigree cattle. Students justify their scores of the cattle by writings a paper of class pedigree and giving three verbal statements about why they gave a specific cattle a certain score. In total students can earn up to five-hundred points during the Dairy Judging competition.

Brooklyn Alanis commented on being a member of the Dairy Judging team, “At first I was nervous because I’m not from a dairy background, but after the first competition I realized it wasn’t as hard as I thought.”

The students on our Los Banos High School Dairy Judging team are Emma Van Lobensels 10, Brooklyn Alanis 10, Makenna Silviera 9, Sage Aria 9, and Gisselle Segoviano 12.  Mr. McCullough is the teacher/ director in charge of the Dairy Judging team.

Mr. McCullough said, “Dairy Judging is just like anything else in life that you compete in. You have to organize your thoughts, you have to defend your reasoning with a strong defense, you have to understand how to break down and evaluate and balance all of those things into your schedule. Just like anything else kids do in school that requires them to do more than just show up helps with balancing their life down the road. It helps with explaining your self so that when the day comes and its really important you have the jump on people who have never put themselves in those types of situations.