District Livestock Judging Brings Over 300 Students To Neligh

Over 300 area students were in Neligh at the Antelope County Fairgrounds on Wednesday participating in District Livestock Judging.

According to Interim Elgin FFA Advisor Hilary Maricle, there were 311 students in attendance representing 12 different schools.

Maricle is the substitute Agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at Elgin, taking over for Julia Schwartz who is on maternity leave.

Elgin Public Schools hosted the event with the help of all the advisors. In livestock judging, students judge ten classes of livestock which, include cattle, sheep and hogs.

“This allows them to help select which ones are the higher quality.” Maricle, said, "They look at performance data, and they also look at the animal, look at structure and muscle to identify the best livestock.”

Maricle said that these skills will be helpful if the students purse a degree in Production Ag or Agribusiness.

“Not only in agriculture, but no matter which career these students choose, their going to use the critical thinking, the problem solving skills,” said Maricle.

She believes one of the most valuable classes is the Cull Keep, where students have to decide which four animals they would keep in their herd. 

“A lot of life skills are learned,” Maricle said.