Students prepare for a future in agriculture at Big 3 Field Day

Jul. 19—As the noise of hundreds of students' voices filled the air, Annamarie Whitworth wrote notations and numbers in pencil on her notepad. She leaned against the railing, focusing on a group of four goats in a pen on Tuesday morning in the Totusek Arena.

Whitworth traveled with her teammates from the small town of Mason, Texas, to attend the Big 3 Field Day hosted by Oklahoma State University.

The annual three-day event that started on Tuesday drew more than 1,400 students to participate in livestock judging and other educational events. The animals they judged included sheep, goats, beef and swine.

Whitworth, 15, got involved with livestock judging as a fifth-grader in 4H and FFA, and she's been doing it ever since. On Tuesday, she judged seven classes of sheep and goats.

"Whenever I walk up to a class, I try to separate them into pairs to make it as easy as I can on myself," Whitworth said. "I just look at the pros and cons and see where they fit into a class ... getting an overall placing."

On her notepad, she listed each classification of livestock and their corresponding number with her ratings.

"You rate them in order from best to worse, and they have cuts to them," Whitworth said. "So the cuts are like the point system. ... The best you can make is a 50."

Kasie Vestal, a second-year agriculture teacher with Whitworth's team, said her students are busy with athletics and other activities, but still find time to judge.

"There's not another opportunity where they get to judge eight classes of each species in a day," Vestal said. "It gives them the opportunity to see more animals and get that much more practice in."

Youth judges are typically given 10-12 minutes to judge per group of species, depending on whether they have to give reasons for their ratings, such as in 4H. With approximately 200 youth at each pen, they have to move fast to rotate to all seven classes.

The Big 3 Field Day is a team event that's competed on an individual basis, but groups can choose to judge all three days or focus one specific livestock category to judge.

Youth judges are anywhere between 8-18 years old, with some as young as 6 or 7.

"(They're) utilizing skills they've been trained on prior to coming," said Justin Crosswhite, the Youth Livestock Extension Specialist for the State of Oklahoma, and an assistant extension specialist within the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at OSU. "They'll get to ... hone those skills. ... They'll get to go back through those classes at the end with their coaches and talk about the good and the bad ... and what they could maybe improve on in the future."

Along with the judging, students participated in a "Best of the Best Reasons Competition" on Tuesday, where they gave their reasoning behind their ratings, and a 3v3 basketball tournament on Wednesday.

More than 100 awards and scholarships are given out each year, including the Joe Hughes Memorial Traveling Trophy. Hughes developed the program into the three-day event it is today.

Short-term goals for students here include judging at the livestock contests held in April. For some, it's their last time to judge as a high school student, and for others, it's an opportunity to work toward wining their state 4H or FFA judging contests, Crosswhite said.

"If a young person would have livestock of their own at home, evaluating these stock would help with some of those skills ... and some of their selection criteria as they are trying to breed better livestock," Crosswhite said.

Another advantage is the opportunity to network with hundreds of other students from across Oklahoma and other states.

Sam Spradlin, a county extension agent from Mason, Texas, who coached Whitworth's group, said this is the first year he's brought his group to the Big 3.

"Most of the contests in Texas are not this big," Spradlin said. "It's a big draw."

William Bergman, an agriculture teacher from Miami, Oklahoma, said his students are able to learn the meaning of hard work and dedication which leads to both individual and team success.

"Students are able to learn about the livestock industry and become familiar with OSU. For example, in addition to judging livestock, my students also toured the disease and diagnostic lab on campus," Bergman said. "This event provides students with an educational experience in which they gain the knowledge and skills to advocate for agriculture."

Long-term goals for judges would be to compete at the collegiate level — or become a Payne County Youth Expo or Payne County Fair judge.

"They can judge in college and that can help from a scholarship standpoint," Spradlin said. "They can travel the nation while they're in college to meet people and network for future careers."

But the biggest impact for students at Big 3 involves learning communication skills and critical thinking skills.

"That's a skill that most employers hold very high, that not all activities train young people on," Crosswhite said. "But livestock judging does an amazing job of training critical thinking skills — and rapid critical thinking skills because you don't have a long period time to make those decisions. That's why our students who have participated in livestock judging are usually highly coveted within the job market."

Whitworth said she will continue to judge throughout high school.

"It prepares me for the future of my life," Whitworth said. "I've always been surrounded by agriculture."