UNIVERSITY PARK — Youth from across Pennsylvania’s 4-H program recently participated in the annual 4-H Animal Judging Day, held on Penn State’s University Park campus. The event hosted 260 youth, ages 10-18, who showcased their skills in various animal judging events. These included dairy, horse and livestock, which featured swine, sheep and beef cattle.

“Judging contests are an important part of our overall focus in the 4-H program on life-skill development,” said Kirsten Dubbs, Penn State Extension 4-H animal science program specialist. “Youths are learning how to learn — developing focus and concentration, decision-making skills, the ability to think under pressure, and how to collaborate with teammates.”

4-H members learn about which qualities to look for in an animal and how to place them in rankings. Youth also justify their animal placings to contest officials. This involves quickly evaluating, formulating and delivering sets of oral reasons, which develop public speaking and critical thinking skills under pressure, Dubbs noted.

Junior participants are between 10 and 13 years old, while senior competitors range from 14 to 18 years old. Dubbs noted that the poultry judging contest was not held this year due to low participation, while meat judging was on hold pending the hire of a Penn State Extension meat specialist. She expects the contest to return in 2026.

Below are the results for each contest:

Dairy judging:

• First place to senior individual James Grisafi, of Susquehanna County.

• First place to the junior team of Evelyn Maulfair, Mikaylia Maulfair, Seth Peiffer and Georgia Sellers, of Lebanon County. Sellers also won the junior individual category.

Horse judging:

• First place to the senior multicounty team of Madison Anderson, of Erie County, Annabelle Ewing, of Huntingdon County, Drew McGraw, of Lawrence County, and Riley McGraw, of Lawrence County.

• First place to senior individual Annabelle Ewing, of Huntingdon County.

• First place to the junior team of Austin Foster, Elizabeth Foster, Wyatt Long and Wade Valle, of Cumberland County.

• First place to junior individual Jaesa McGraw, of Lawrence County.

• First place to the beginner team of Ava Adams, Johnna Brown, Emma Raudabaugh and Jameson Raudabaugh, of Cumberland County.

• First place to beginner individual Connor Felsing, of Allegheny County.

Livestock judging:

• First place to the senior multicounty team of Mesa Brown, of Schuylkill County, Clayton Heisey, of Lebanon County, Phoebe Stutzman, of Berks County, and Brody Youtz, of Lebanon County. Youtz also won the senior individual category.

• First place to the junior team of Wyatt Brubaker, Naomi Campbell, Dallan Dibble and Amber Lenker, of Dauphin County.

• First place to junior individual Sawyer Werner, of Huntingdon County.

“The vast majority of our coaches working with the youth on a day-to-day basis are volunteers,” Dubbs said. “We also have volunteers who come the day of the contest to help with the event. They’re absolutely essential to making this opportunity available to youth.”

Many of these contests offer senior participants the chance to qualify for various national competitions.

Administered in Pennsylvania by Penn State Extension, 4-H is a nonformal educational youth-development program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that helps young people develop knowledge and skills to become capable, caring and contributing citizens.

To find your local program, visit the Pennsylvania 4-H website at https://extension.psu.edu/programs/4-h/counties.