The ISU Livestock Judging Team secured its first national contest by winning the National Western Stock Show Senior Collegiate Judging Contest last Friday. The team also went on to win the Carloads Contest held Saturday.

In the events, Iowa State competed against 28 universities.

There are a few differences between the two contests, said Eric Kinsley, ISU livestock judging coach.

“In the Carloads Contest, instead of placing those animals as individuals, we place those groups of animals, and we evaluate those animals based on the same criteria,” Kinsley said. “We also consider uniformity.”

For Friday’s contest, the competitors were also asked to give eight sets of oral reasons to explain their choice of placings, said participant Joel Morrical, junior in animal science.

In the regular contest, as a team, Iowa State placed first in hogs, first in the reasons category, second overall in cattle and third in sheep. Individually, Morrical placed fourth in swine and was fifth overall. Nick Berry, junior in animal science, was fourth in sheep.

In the Carloads Contest, three members of the team placed in the top 10, Kinsley said. Jason Schneider, junior in animal science, placed ninth; Pat Wall, junior in animal science, placed fourth; and Tucker Janssen, junior in agricultural studies, placed second.

“We did real well in hogs,” Kinsley said. “Hogs is what separated the contest out for us as much as anything. We were very fortunate to get the hog classes lined up correctly.

He said the team had been preparing for about a month.

Along with Kinsley, Assistant Coach Ben Bobell, senior in agricultural studies, aided the team with practices and workouts.

“In a lot of ways, they bypassed my expectations of them this early in the season,” Kinsley said.

Berry called the trip “a neat experience. We were not expected to win, and we went in and won the whole thing.”

For both contests, five ISU team members participated.

On Friday the participants were Berry, Morrical, Janssen, Wall and Dustin Ford, junior in animal science. For the Carloads Contest, the participants were Berry, Wall, Janssen, Schneider, and Eric Schulte, junior in animal science.

The team’s upcoming agenda includes three more contests for the spring semester.

“We will compete at Sioux Falls in two weeks and at the Iowa Beef Expo and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in the month of February,” Kinsley said.