It’s not a sport, but Iowa State’s Meat Judging Team competes with Big 12 and other rivals in meat labs across the country.

“We’ve been very competitive this year,” said Matthew Gardner, animal science graduate assistant and coach of the Iowa State Meat Judging Team.

The team has competed in four different contests this fall, including one competition hosted by Iowa State.

They ended their season last weekend at the national championship of meat judging, the International Contest held in Dakota City, Neb.

The 10-member Iowa State Meat Judging Team placed seventh overall.

Tara Wellman, junior in animal science, placed eighth overall individually, winning her a spot on the second All-American Team.

Individuals are picked for the All-American Team based both on their judging abilities and grade-point average, Gardner said.

Members of the Iowa State Meat Judging Team practice many hours prior to competition.

“We practice two hours every day,” Gardner said.

He also said many Saturdays are spent traveling to various meat labs to practice identification of meats not available at Iowa State.

Team members “haven’t been to a football game yet this season,” Gardner said.

However, all this hard work and time commitment does have its rewards.

“[Meat judging] opens a lot of doors as far as employment goes,” Gardner said.

It also helps team members develop communication, time management and decision-making skills, he said.

Jon Jacobs, sophomore in animal science, said one of the best parts of being on the team are the trips.

Wellman enjoys the camaraderie. “We fight like brothers and sisters. We get along like brothers and sisters,” she said.

Students were chosen to participate on the team after completing a half-semester class about meat judging.

After joining the team, students begin practicing for competitions through both working on their writing skills and visually appraising meat.

“You need to see about 1,000 carcasses before you get very good at [judging],” Gardner said.

At the competitions students inspect beef, pork, lamb and various cuts of the meats.

They then grade the meat based on things like quality, trimness, and muscling.

Next, students write sets of reasons about why they graded and placed each piece of meat the way they did, Gardner said.

The meat is also judged according to what kind of defects it has.

“[Team members] have to memorize each of the defects,” Gardner said.