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4-H Meat Judging Team Excels at State Contest
August, 2011
Sonja C. Crawford, Hendry County Extension Agent II, 4-H/Livestock
The Hendry County 4-H Meat Judging Team captured second place in the Florida 4-H Meat Judging Contest in Gainesville. The team consisted of Adam Barfield, Andy McAvoy, Jarad Plair, and Katelyn Steelman.
For those that are unfamiliar with the 4-H Meat Judging and Identification contest, it is a contest that has two parts, Judging and Identification. Judging and Identification requires the students to develop their judgement, decision making and verbal skills. In the judging portion of the contest, the teams placed meat cuts and/or carcasses to rank in order of the best to the worst. In the Identification portion of the contest, the teams had to identify the species, primal cut, retail name, type and cooking method for 50 retail cuts of beef, port, and lamb from a list of 132 cuts.
The total placing category, the team placed seven classes; beef carcasses, pork carcasses, hams, beef rounds, beef loins, beef top sirloin steaks, and pork sirloin chops. Questions were given for the pork and beef carcasses.
In the Overall Individual Standings, Jarad Plair led the way by placing second in the state with a score of 745 points out of 950. Andy McAvoy captured 5th place, Katelyn Steelman took 6th with Adam Barfield in 7th.
The team will continue to practice to compete in the National competition to be held January 5-8, 2012, in conjunction with the Western National Roundup Event in Denver, Colorado.