Washington County livestock judging team preparing in Denver Friday. Photo courtesy of Washington County 4-H.

Four Washington County 4-H’ers are competing in the National Western Stock Show this weekend in Denver, Colorado.

The senior livestock judging team of Carmen Sieren, Iris Peterson, Anna Nafziger, and Greta Sieren advanced after placing third at the state contest in Ames last summer. Carmen explains how livestock judging involves measuring beef cattle, sheep, swine, and meat goats against a standard, “So for each class you go to you basically rate the animals one through four and write your placing and you get scored out of 50. And then at the end of the competition you write reasons explaining why you place the animals how you did, and you give them to the judge and they also score you out of 50.”

The team exemplifies Washington County 4-H’s recent resurgence in livestock judging participation, led by volunteer coaches Brandon Freel, Dustin Ford, Ted Greiner, and Chad Younge. With a choice of competing in Denver or Kansas City, the girls unanimously picked Denver, and Nafziger shares what else she looks forward to experiencing this weekend, “There will be like a career fair and we’ll get to tour a feedlot. So I’m just super excited just to go through the career fair and just see what else is out there that they have associated with livestock judging.”

Simply advancing to a national competition is a victory for the senior team, as themselves and other local 4-H members meet twice monthly year round preparing for contests, which helps develop skills in decision making, critical thinking, oral reasoning, self confidence, and problem solving.