Last May, members of Albert Lea’s FFA chapter were competing in a general livestock state judging contest at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul campus. Placing first meant the team qualified for a chance to compete in a national event in Louisville. Placing second meant they would compete at a different event in Denver.

As it happened, the Albert Lea team, comprising 2008 graduates Derek Heideman, Evan Wangen and Brandi Modene, current seniors Ben Manigold and Joe Hubly and junior Maddy Ruble, placed second, a fate, with which the team was more than OK.

“The kids would all rather go to Denver,” said FFA adviser and judging coach Wayne Busch, who set up the trip and accompanied the four-person team to the Mile High City.

Last spring the team finished second at the regional, which earned it an invite to the state event in St. Paul, where, again, it took second place. That was worth a bid to compete at the Western Livestock Show on Jan. 10. The team finished first at the national competition in judging market goats and finished 10th overall. There are four judging divisions: beef cattle, sheep, hogs, market goats.

For people unfamiliar with FFA judging, here’s how it works: Four animals of a division are put in front of the student judges. They must rank them one through four based on various criteria. An official judge also ranks them. The student judge’s goal is to have a ranking similar to the official judge’s ranking.

“Afterward we felt pretty good about the contest,” Manigold said. “We compared our notes after the contest and we were all pretty similar. That made us feel pretty good.”

But that’s only part of the equation. The other criteria is a student judge’s ability to explain why they ranked the animals they way they did. They have to offer what’s called Oral Reasons.

“We’re not as polished in Oral Reasons as some of the other groups are,” Busch said.

He was impressed with his group, pointing out how well they competed against states with much more established livestock programs.

“I was really excited about the way we judged,” he said.

Judging wasn’t only part of the fun of this trip, though. Busch contacted judging coaches at three land-grant universities along the route: Iowa State in Ames, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. All three were more than willing to let the students stop and use their top-notch agriculture labs to practice. Busch said the students really enjoyed that.

“I personally like Colorado State the best,” Manigold said, who also mentioned how cool it was seeing Cornhusker Stadium at Nebraska. Colorado State “had newer facilities and it was neat to see the mountains from the university.”

Ruble, who was the alternate at the national competition, said she hopes the team can advance as far again this year.

“If we work together this year and judge as a team, we should be able to keep the same high expectations,” she said.