The SHSU livestock judging team recently hosted the Area Nine Career Development Event for Texas Future Farmers of America at the Gibbs Ranch Agricultural Complex. This event is one of several in which team members prepare for the national judging competition held in Louisville, Ky., in November.”We will also be coordinating and officiating judging for a county fair in Santa Fe this weekend,” said Mitzi Smith, member. “This summer we will be officiating more of these events and preparing for the state finals.”Smith said by teaching high school students the techniques of livestock judging, the team members increase their own skills and compete better. “We judge and place the livestock in classes, and then the students come in and do their own judging,” she said. “After that, we discuss with them how we judged and why we placed the animals where we did.”Smith took first place at the livestock show in Fort Worth in the horse division and second place at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. “We don’t try to compete against each other, though; we’re a team. We’re all equal,” Smith said.In collegiate judging, each person is ranked individually and the scores are then combined for a team score. “We were short one team member this semester, so we didn’t get team scores. We’re hoping to bring home a title in the fall,” Smith said. In addition to hosting various competitions for 4-H Clubs and FFA members, the team members travel around the state doing workouts at different ranches to perfect their skills on a variety of animals.Other team members include Cindy Swanner, Aaron Wilson, Josh Vodehnal and Time Buhler. Dr. Stanley Kelly is the team’s advisor.