The Western National Round-up competitions in January in Denver, Colorado were well attended by South Dakota 4-H members, who competed against other students from across the nation. John Keimig is the SDSU Extension 4-H Associate who accompanied several different teams to Denver.

Keimig says students qualify for the national competition by place high enough in the South Dakota state contest. He says the students who represented the state in Denver this year were primarily self-taught and worked to improve their judging skills on their own and practicing oral reasons with the SDSU collegiate judging coach.

The livestock judging competition required that students evaluate and place 10 classes of beef, sheep, and swine. Oral reasons were required for six of those classes. Minnesota’s team placed 8th overall, South Dakota 9th, Iowa 13th, and Nebraska 16th.