Blue Jacket Lessons

Written by: John Stewart   |   February 26, 2020

Our role in ag, Holidays

Last week, I had the opportunity to join National FFA Organization members from across the country at FFA’s brand new NextGen Conference, which focused on animal system career pathways. The room was full of high school juniors and seniors who were eager to learn from industry representatives about potential careers as nutritionists, veterinarians, marketing managers and salespeople in the animal agriculture industry. I was there to talk about my career and the animal food industry, but I learned far more from the young people sitting in that room who will be responsible for solving some of agriculture’s greatest and most daunting challenges.

While listening to these young people ask thought-provoking and challenging questions, I also reflected on my time in a blue corduroy jacket. I spent a lot of time in one of those jackets, from my first FFA career development event as a freshman in high school, to my time as a state FFA officer - that jacket and the experiences I had in it are engrained in who I am. FFA provided me with many opportunities to learn and travel that I never dreamed possible, all while preparing me for a career in the agriculture industry.

One of my favorite memories in FFA was livestock and dairy judging. I remember when Mr. Robison, my agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, told me that I would be joining the livestock judging team...I suppose in hindsight it wasn’t really an option. And it didn’t take a lot of convincing since we would miss at least one day of school for the state contest, a huge benefit for any 14-year-old. Soon, we were looking at classes of animals online, traveling to farms and research units to look at animals and practicing giving reasons in the hallway or behind a barn. I learned a lot from livestock judging, and some of these lessons have stuck with me throughout my career:

• Decision making: In livestock judging, whether a class of gilts or a class of steers, at some point, you’re going to run out of time to look at the animals and you’ll have to make a decision. Life isn’t really that different, all of us will have to evaluate a multitude of options both personally and professionally. Livestock judging taught me to look at what was in front of me and evaluate what I have been given based on what I knew about those animals. My decision-making process still takes practice, just like evaluating those animals did, and I have my time judging livestock to thank for helping me with that process.
• Communication: On some of the classes of livestock, contestants would have to give reasons verbally to a judge for why they placed them the way that they did. Providing an explanation is partly about knowing your content and placing and partly about salesmanship. The judge is going to evaluate you based on your knowledge of the animals and your ability to describe your thinking for placing them the way that you did, but also on your ability to communicate to the judge that your placing is correct. Learning how to organize my thoughts and present them in a compelling and interesting way has been a skill that I use daily as I work with lawmakers and industry leaders and I have livestock judging to thank for that.

• Honesty: If you tell the truth, you’ll be just fine. You can be dead wrong on a class, a judge may have liked those animals a different way, but if you present them the truth and tell them what you saw, you’re likely not going to miss it by much. Livestock judging is pretty subjective. Most of life is. If you tell that judge, or others in your life the truth, you’re not going to be off by much either. Being honest is the greatest lesson I learned in livestock judging.

There are so many more lessons I learned in livestock judging and while an FFA member. I’m thankful for the time spent, lessons learned and relationships built during that time. Being around those young people last week made me excited for the future of the agriculture industry and for our world. The future is bright, so long as young people continue to wear blue jackets.

Happy National FFA Week,

John