COUNTYWIDE : Budding Judges Test Their Knowledge

“He’s got a nice body,” said Denise Yeargan, 16.

“He’s got a really nice top line,” observed Missy Gallimore, 17. “Not too much fat. You want them muscly.”

Weighing a trim 150 pounds and boasting big brown eyes and reddish-brown hair, the object of the girls’ attention made his displeasure obvious. When they approached him, he jumped away and joined his three companions in a chorus of bellows.

The Fillmore High School students were rendering their expert opinions on a quartet of calves during a Future Farmers of America contest Wednesday at Ventura College.

About 100 students from the vocational agriculture programs at Carpinteria, Santa Paula and Fillmore high schools spent the morning grading livestock and produce and composing written explanations for their conclusions. Their judgments, in turn, were judged by students and faculty at the college.

Besides developing an eye for quality, FFA members learn to grow produce and raise livestock.

According to Susan Kleine, an agriculture instructor at the college, the high school students must meet rigorous standards, even in local competitions.

“For this event, they have to know identification and proper name spelling, seeds, certain insects,” she said.

In his second year studying agriculture, Bucky Cook, 15, knows his vegetables well enough to advise his mother in supermarket selection, but seeds still give him trouble.

Bucky, a Carpinteria sophomore, admitted that he had difficulty identifying most of the seeds arrayed around a college classroom. But he confidently pointed to the potatoes he considered best among four piles.

“They’re all the same size and they’re mostly the same shape,” he said. Gesturing at a second and third group, he said, “These are a little too big, and these have a little rotting.”

Moving on to a sight that would make George Bush blanch, Bucky assessed the relative merits of four bunches of broccoli.

Building on the experience of such local contests, students go on to county, state, regional and national events. For some of the teen-agers, the training and competition are precursors to careers in agriculture.

Students can also pick up tricks of the trade worthy of Vidal Sassoon.

“If you were showing (calves), you’d clip their hair until it was about this long,” Denise confided, holding thumb and forefinger about an inch apart, “and you’d spike it up with gel or mousse it to give the illusion of a straight top line.”