On November 19th, White City students had a chance to attend Meat Judging as a part of FFA. The sponsor for FFA is Mrs. Madison Hinkle. This is Mrs. Hinkle’s first year as FFA sponsor. In order to find out all about this FFA activity, we interviewed one of the students who attended. Thank you to Freshman Ely Benner for giving us his time.
According to the official FFA website, meat judging “provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the meat animal industry, equipping them with valuable employment skills and knowledge of meat animal products.” Such team and individual activities put the focus on the skills of communication, cooperation, and evaluation.
Meats judged at the event are divided into different classes. Ely tells us that he really enjoys judging the different classes. Ely based his judgement on “quality, marbling, color, texture, yield, and freshness.”
We asked Ely if he had prior experience with beef evaluation, and Ely said “I judged other kinds of meat but not this kind.” Ely has experience judging deer meat specifically.
Ely says that the categories he judged were, “Beef, lamb, and pork.” Additionally, there were three overall classifications of meat to be judged.
Ely encourages other students to attend meat evaluation activities in FFA next year.
It was fun, but Ely warns, “The meat locker was surprisingly cold!”.