Submitted by Haley Carlson, Atlantic FFA Reporter

Atlantic FFA took four members to the State FFA Livestock Judging Career Development Event (CDE) Saturday, Aug. 23. Team members included Marshal McDermott, Tyler Petty, Clayton Saeugling, and Haley Carlson.

The contest consisted of a variety of animals and judging situations. Altogether, there were nine classes: breeding heifers, market steers, keep/cull breeding gilts, market lambs, breeding ewes, keep/cull ewes, breeding gilts, market hogs, and breeding does.

Each class consisted of four animals, with their respective numbers, that FFA members had to place and mark down on their score cards. The keep/cull classes contained eight breeding animals; members were told to pick out 4 they would like to keep and take home, and circle those numbers on the scorecard.

Along with judging the classes, FFA members gave oral reasons for the three market classes and took a knowledge test. The classes, reasons, and test were worth a total of 650 points (50 points for each section).

Once completed and scored, the top three point totals from each team were added together for final placings. Atlantic FFA placed 22 out of 45 teams, with a score of 1549 points, earning a silver award.
FFA member Clayton Saeugling said, “It was a very tough judging contest but was also a lot of fun.”

Tyler Petty said, “It was one of the harder livestock judging contests that I’ve done compared to ones in the past.”