NEMCC TO SHOWCASE OWN BRAND, HOST LIVESTOCK JUDGING CLINIC

Jay Slater of Alcorn County to serve as event facilitator

by Michael H. Miller

BOONEVILLE, Miss. -- (11/27/2023) — Northeast Mississippi Community College has long been known as the preeminent brand for education in northeast Mississippi.

Now, the college has its own brand.

Its own cattle brand

Northeast's award-winning Intercollegiate Beef Judging team and the college's award-winning Future Farmers of America (FFA) Alumni and Supporters chapter will debut the Northeast brand at a Livestock Judging Clinic at the Prentiss County Agricultural Center on MS 145 just north of Booneville on Friday, December 1.

During the Livestock Judging Clinic, Northeast will partner with the Prentiss County 4-H Club to help 4-H members and area FFA members who want to improve their knowledge and who want to learn more about livestock judging.

Instructor and facilitator for the Northeast Livestock Judging Clinic will be Jay Slater of Alcorn County. Slater was an award-winning collegiate juror for both Jones College in Ellisville and on the four-year level at Mississippi State University.

Slater was the winner of the 2022 Young Farmers & Ranchers Discussion Meet by the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation.

Slater is a fourth-generation beef cattle producer and timber farmer, who lives in Alcorn County with his wife and works as a collateral evaluator for the Misssisippi Land Bank.

While beef will be the focus of the event, instruction will also take participants into different types of cattle, sheep, and swine. all of which are included in livestock judging competitions, live animal and carcass relationships, and the use of performance dates in the preparation of oral reasoning.

In addition, participants will learn the basics about livestock judging, notetaking, questions, and the introduction to oral reasoning, which is one of the top parts of livestock judging.

Methods for instruction will include small group lectures, demonstrations, hands-on experience, one-on-one coaching, critiquing, and question-and-answer sessions. Participants should be ready to present a set of oral reasonings if asked during the livestock judging clinic.

Contestants are allowed just 12 minutes to make observations, record their placings, and take notes to assist them in their oral reasoning.

However, contestants cannot have their notes or any other assistive devices when justifying their reasonings to the national judges, nor can they confer with other contestants, coaches, or anyone else during the competition.

Northeast's Livestock Judging Clinic will run from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

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