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Third time lucky at National Judging Competition                    

Penny McArdle, the winner of the 2007 Angus Youth National Judging Competition and the 2007 University of Illinois Scholarship	Penny is congratulated by overjudge Erica Halliday, Walcha, NSW
At the 2007 National Judging Competition were Rob Crosby, Boggabri, NSW; Melissa Neal, 2006 MSU scholar, Lilydale, VIC; Penny McArdle, Meningie, SA; James Griffiths, Oberon, NSW; Alex Aylan-Parker, 2007 MSU scholar, Mansfield, VIC; and Jim Bruce, Semex/Phoenix Genetics.

The winner of the 2007 Angus Youth National Judging Competition is Penny McArdle, Meningie, South Australia. It was Penny’s third time participating in the national judging competition, which this year was held in Tamworth, NSW. As a result of her win, Penny was awarded the prestigious University of Illinois scholarship, which entitles her to study in the US for a semester at this highly regarded university.

Entrants in this year’s Angus Youth National Judging competition came from Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Each competitor was nominated by their state Angus committee based upon the results of each state’s cattle assessment school.

The competitors in the 2007 National Judging Competition were Justin Boshammer, Chinchilla, QLD; Angus Newcombe, Duri, NSW; David Green, Ben Lomond, NSW; Alex Aylan-Parker, Mansfield, VIC; Penny McArdle, SA; and Rachel Elliot, WA.

The competition activities included livestock judging, carcase assessment, interviews and a beef industry quiz. The livestock judging was held at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School’s farm where the competitors judged a range of animals from weaner bulls to stud cows. The competitors then proceeded to judge steers for different markets at the Tamworth Show. As well as being scored on each livestock class, competitors were asked a range of observation questions about the animals. After these activities the three competitors with the highest scores - Angus Newcombe, David Green, Penny McArdle - proceeded to the finals.

The finalists were judged on their ringcraft, their reasons for their placings and their presentation. This year’s final was one of the closest in the national judging competition’s twenty-seven year history. Only three points separated the top two competitors – Penny McArdle and David Green – with Penny the winner.

Currently working as an agronomist in Meningie, South Australia, Penny has had a long relationship with Angus Youth and is the 2007 chairperson for the Angus Youth Management Committee. The scholarship gives Penny the opportunity to travel to the US and study meat and animal science at the University of Illinois for a semester. She will also have the opportunity to compete in US intercollegiate meat and livestock judging competitions.

As runner-up, David Green was presented with the Kathleen Cornell encouragement award, sponsored by the Cornell family. This award assists David to attend the highly regarded beef cattle assessment school at Tocal, NSW.

Angus Youth would like to congratulate all this year’s competitors. We would also like to thank Angus Australia and the Australian Beef Industry Foundation for supporting this scholarship. The 2007 Angus Youth National Judging Competition would not have been possible without the contributions of Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Tamworth P & A Society, Zeals Pastoral Company and overjudge Mrs. Erica Halliday.