Education: Judgment Day

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Even after 2½ years in the agriculture school of Oklahoma A. & M., Edwin Fisher, 20, could not help feeling nervous about what lay ahead. The big intercollegiate livestock judging contest in Fort Worth is one of four major contests of the year, and top students from 16 campuses had come to Fort Worth to take part in it. On the night before, Eddie Fisher went early to his room at the Westbrook Hotel, read a chapter (Judges 7) from the Gideon Bible, turned off the light and tried to sleep.

Eddie had good reason to toss and turn. To any student who intends to spend his life as a stockman, a judging contest is more than just a game. It means days of extra training (six to eight hours a week, plus special workouts during holidays); it is as nerve-racking as a final exam, as grueling in its way as a Ph.D. oral. It is also a part of U.S. education that is duplicated nowhere else in the world. "What we're trying to teach the boys," says Livestock Expert George. Reid, "is the sense of making a sound, systematic decision. That's useful in any walk of life, but if a boy is a rancher, buying stock or buying meat, this training applies specifically."

Take It Easy. The next day began at a ranch-style hour. By 6 a.m. Eddie and his teammates were headed for breakfast. By 7 they had gathered around their coach for last-minute instructions. Then, just before the boys took off for the exposition grounds, the coach shook each one by the hand. "Take it easy," he said. "Stand back, and take it easy."

From 8 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon, the 80 contestants shuffled silently around the stock. There were 13 classes to be judged, with four animals in each class. The trick was to rank them in their proper order. For Eddie, the Shorthorn heifers seemed easy. One looked a bit long-bodied; another was too narrow through the quarters; a third stood out as "a thick, typy heifer that had a lot of bloom." Each heifer had a number on its back, and Eddie jotted down in his notebook how he thought they should rank: 4,2,3,1.

The Quarter Horse mares nearly stumped him before the whistle blew that time was nearly up. He noted, unofficially, that Mare No. 1 was held by a blonde lady ("wide-brimmed hat, pony tail, fur coat, slacks and moccasins"), that the mare herself wasn't too bad either ("a sorrel, pretty well muscled, true in her movement"). Mare No. 2 looked as if she were going to bite or kick; No. 3 was "thick through the stifle," and No. 4 was "a deep chestnut, stylish, powerfully muscled." As Eddie passed along, he wrote his decision: 4,3,2,1.

Before the Experts. As the hours ticked away, Eddie judged the Quarter Horse studs, Angus heifers, Hereford bulls, Hereford heifers, Angus steers. At each class he stood back, then circled around the animals, felt for firmness and fat. He passed to the Southdown fat lambs, the Rambouillet ewes, the Hampshire ewes. Finally he moved to the swine area for the Duroc fat barrows, the Berkshire fat barrows and the Poland gilts. Of all the classes, the fat lambs troubled him most ("and I raise them at home").