Mooving Toward Ideal Evaluation

Emily Gilley

Orientation

This presentation is focused on teaching you the basic techniques to judging beef cattle. When judging, you are focusing on four cows in one class. You will have 15 minutes to judge the entire class and sort out the good and bad qualities of each cow. This presentation will break down those qualities.

Main Menu
Priorities
Steers Heifers Application

Breeds

Review Video

Judge It!
Steers Heifers

Review Video

Priorities- Market Steers & Heifers

1 Muscle

Finish

Rib and Practicality

Structure

Balance

Muscle
When judging any market animal, muscle is the first thing you should look at. If you have no muscle, you have no product, therefore, the farmer gets no money and the consumer gets no meat. The purpose of a market animal is to get it to market as quick and cost efficiently as possible. When looking for muscle, you should look directly behind the shoulder, in the rib and loin, and the center and lower quarter.

Finish
Automatically, when you hear the word finish, you should think of the end product. Which one looks like it can go to market today and still give you the most product? Thats the one you want. The larger framed, more muscled cow would be the one you want.

Ideal

Small

Rib & Practicality

When talking about the rib and practicality of a cow, you looking at the barrel and base of the cow. You want the rib to have a bold shape in order to put more product on the animal. You also want the cow to have good length and depth of body which also allows for more product to hung on the cow. Finally, you want the base width of the animal to be natural and wide.

Structure
There many things that make up structural correctness. In this category, you should look at the legs, topline, angulation of the shoulders and hips (for movement), and levelness through the hooks and pins. Structural correctness is a major priority because if the cow is unsound, eventually it will affect the product that is being made. Check out this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTPYq99C_A&list=PL7BFD346EDA761727

Balance
Having an overall balance, means that the cow blends smoothly from end to end. In order to be balanced, you should be able to draw three equal circles on the cow at the front, middle, and back of the cow.

Priorities- Heifers
1 Structure (Functionality)

Volume (Functionality)

Balance & Femininity

Performance

Muscle & Width

Structure (Functionality)
Structure in a heifer is the most important quality because without proper structure, her ability to produce higher quality offspring is reduced. She, like a market animal, needs clean, strong legs, a clean level topline, proper angulation in her shoulders and hips for movement, and the key thing is levelness from her hooks to pins for ease of calving.

Volume (Functionality)
Heifers needs to have a large volume in their barrel in order to carry calves during gestation. They need to be deep and long bodied and have a bold spring of rib in order to have the capacity to hold a baby.

Balance & Femininity

Balance is a universal term for steers and heifers. When looking at heifers, it is of more importance for eye appeal, and she can pass her good or bad balance to her offspring. Femininity is mostly for eye appeal, however, producers want their heifers feminine for production. You look for femininity through the heifers head which you want to be refined and chiseled.

Performance
Performance comes into play when you get an EPD (Expected Progeny Differences) sheets. EPDs are numbers that explain birth weight , calving ease, rate of gain, and milk production, along with many more maternal characteristics that are crucial to breeders.

Muscle & Width

Muscle and width are still important for heifers because they need muscle to maintain their health as well as the baby that they are carrying. Width is more important to a heifer compared to muscle, since it gives space for the baby to grow. You need width over the top, through the base, and in the hook and pins.

Try This
Click on the picture of the cow that you find to be the more ideal individual. (Hint: focus on the length of body)

Great Job!
The angus appearing heifer on the left is the cow with more length of body. This heifer is also the more balanced and leveler topped individual of this pair. You did great! Go on to the next one and try something else!

Actually, this is what were looking for.

This Angus appearing heifer is what were looking for because as you can see the difference in the lengths of the lines mean that she is longer in her body than the Hereford appearing steer. But thats alright, go try the next one!

Try This
Click on the picture of the cow that you find to be the more ideal individual. (Hint: focus on the balance)

Awesome!
This Charolais appearing steer is the more balanced cow of the two. You can more easily draw even circles on him and he is more smoothly blended through his shoulders and quarters.

Not quite!
With the Charolais appearing steer, you can more easily see his balance, whereas with the darker heifer, she is longer through her barrel, and lacks the smoothness of the steer.

Try This
Click on the picture of the cow that you find to be the more ideal individual. (Hint: Focus on the topline)

Yes! Thats it!

This Hereford appearing heifer is more level and smooth though her topline compared to the black heifer.

Try one more time!

When you look at the two heifers, you should notice a huge difference between the heifers! The black heifer breaks in her back and is not level from her hooks to her pins.

Try This
Click on the picture of the cow that you find to be the more ideal individual. (Hint: focus on the depth of body)

Awesome! You did great!

This cow has more depth of body compared to the cow on the left. Now that youve mastered this, lets move on to the different breeds of beef cattle.

Maybe you should go back and review and then try again later.
You should have picked the cow on the right. She has a great deal more depth of body compared to the other cow. You should probably go review and then try again.

Breeds

Angus

Chianina

Limousin

Hereford

Charlois

Maine-Anjou

Shorthorn

Simmental

Angus

Chianina

Limousin

Hereford

Charolais

Maine-Anjou

Shorthorn

Simmental

Judge It! Front

(Market Steers) Judge this and take good notes!

Judge It!- Profile (Market Steers)

Judge It!- Rear (Market Steers)

Officials & Reasons

My preferred alignment of this class of this market steers is 2-4-3-1, with an obvious top and bottom pair.

In my top pair I placed 2 over 4 as 2 was better balanced and showed more market readiness. He was straighter topped, cleaner fronted, while being tighter in his brisket and smoother shouldered than 4. Furthermore he exhibited more smoothness and uniformity to his finish from end to end. He would hang a higher grading carcass, yielding more dollars to the producer. I, also, grant that 4 was a larger framed steer.
Moving to my middle pair. I placed 4 over 3. 4 was a larger framed more rugged steer. He stood taller at the point of shoulder and was stretchier sided. He stood on a larger circumference of bone and was deeper bodied and bolder sprung. I grant 3 would hang a higher yielding carcass which would provide the consumer with more total pounds of product. Analyzing my bottom pair of 3 over 1; I placed the heavier muscled larger framed baldy steer over 1. He was wider down his top and through his quarter. Further more he stood wider from stifle to stifle and was the larger framed steer of the pair.. In addition 3 was a nicer balanced steer in that he was straighter made, stronger topped and more level through his hip.

1 found his way to the bottom of the class because he was the smallest framed steer in the class and stood on the poorest set of feet and legs. He was also low set and short sided. Furthermore he was the least balanced steer in the class, being deep in his brisket and higher in his flank than any other steer. Also he was carrying the least amount of finish in comparison with the steers placed above him today.
For the above stated reasons my placing is 2-4-3-1. Thank you.

Judge It Profile

(Crossbred Heifers) Judge this and take good notes!

Judge It! Rear (Crossbred Heifers)

Officials & Reasons

My preferred alignment of this crossbred heifers class is 4-1-3-2. I started with a pair of heifers that are more moderate in their kind. 4 wins the class, as she is the most attractive, most eye appealing and structurally correct female in the class. I place 4 over 1 because she is more feminine and is smoother made with more eye appeal and balance. In addition she is more structurally correct on her front and rear legs. I realize that 1 is wider through her stifle but I criticize her because she lacks the structural correctness, balance and eye appeal of 4. In my middle pair I placed the moderate framed, heavier muscled 1 over 3. 1 is wider based, higher volume and thicker topped than 3. 1 is also stronger topped with more muscle expression from hooks to pins. She is a leveler designed female that is cleaner through her shoulder and brisket. I understand that 3 is deeper sided but she is also flat ribbed and coarser made. Moving to my bottom pair of larger framed heifers, I placed the thicker quartered, wider based 3 heifer over 2. 3 is more muscular through her hindquarter and is wider from stifle to stifle. 3 is also deeper ribbed with more volume and capacity. I realize that 2, the green haltered heifer is a cleaner made more attractive female but she strikes me as shallow made, light muscled and extreme in her make up, therefore she can place no higher. For the above stated reasons, my placing is 4-1-3-2. Thank you.