The professional livestock judge is in the building

The man walks left, then walks right, the entire

team keeping his eyes on the performers at center stage. He’s a professional

judge and cannot afford to waste a second glancing at anything other what needs

to be judged. On Friday afternoon at the Foster Rhoades Beef and Dairy Arena on

the grounds of the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter, Zach

Bartenslager, a professional livestock judge of high order, decided to select a

10-year old Floridian performer and his angus calf in that day’s first

competition. The event, The Southern National Angus Show had hundreds of

performers from all over the country show off their prized angus cattle over

the weekend and that morning Bartenslager was the man that oversaw who won and

who lost. It’s his job. It has been his job for the past seven years. When

asked what he likes the most about his job, Bartenslager, who is also a

livestock judging coach at the University of Tennessee and a professor of

Animal Science, said, “The people. The people that you meet and the

relationships you develop. It’s like a big family.”

Bartenslager, 25, has always been around cattle.

Rasied in Lewisburg, West Virginia, the county seat of Greenbrier County,

population just over 3,800, his father ran a cow/calf operation and from an

early age he knew what he wanted to do. “Just about 200 head,” said

Bartenslager of the number of his dad’s cattle. “I kind of got my start there

and with 4-H. I had a passion for it at a young age.”

That passion for livestock competition took

Bartenslager from Lewisburg to Hutchinson, Kansas where he accepted a livestock

judging scholarship at Hutchinsion Community College and worked on his craft.

From Hutchinson Bartenslager moved on to Columbus, Ohio to Ohio State University

where he earn a agriculture degree while on the Buckeyes livestock judging

team. I know what you’re think and yes, livestock judging is not only a

collegiate sport but it’s big time too.

With his degree in hand and no more collegiate

eligibility left Bartenslager continued to judge livestock all over the

country. This year alone, the show in Perry was his last until August,

Bartenslager has judged shows in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania

and in Tennessee where he also coaches the livestock judging team and is an

advisor for the beef show team. Bartenslager compared the work that goes into

coacing a college livestock judging team to coahcing basketball and by that I

understood the relation top coahcing any competitive sport. It takes discipline

and skill. It takes a professional.

“The animals are used to develop the people,” said

Bartenslager in regards to judging livestock competitions. The competition I

witnessed had kids trying their best, and in some cases performing admirably,

to control animals that were almost five times their weight. Bartenslager

watched the kids as closely at the arena that morning as close if not closer

than he did the angus cattle. The dance that is an angus show has two partners

not one.

The young man that won did a really nice job of

setting his animal up, he knew how to get his calf alert,” he said of 10-year

old Owen Astrino. “He might be advanced for his age.” That compliment reminded

me of someone else who fell in love with livestock competition at a young age.

He continued. “In juniors and novice showmanship

competition we judge the kids, how they handle the animal, how are their

fundamental skills,” added Bartenslager. “On the senior level all of their

fundamentals should be the same. At that point I’m looking for small details

like how they set themselves apart from someone else.”

Preparing to drive home to Knoxville after a

morning’s work- Bartenslager was invited to judge the competition in Perry and

was in town just for a few hours- he gives me a call after I left him a

voicemail following watching him judge the novices and their angus cattle

earlier that day. We talked for a few minutes before setting up a longer

interview later that day. The professional was headed back to school, where he

will not only remain the professional but will also be the professor.

“At the end of the day there’s only one winner and I appreciate that

about this sport.”

HHJ News