Series Rules
Wyoming Meat Judging Youth Series Rules
First Annual Series: Fall 2026 – Spring 2027
1. Series management
The Wyoming Meat Judging Youth Series is managed by the University of Wyoming Meat
Judging Program.
Contact: McKensie Phillips
1000 E. University Ave, Dpt. 3684 Laramie, WY 82071
Mckensie.phillips@uwyo.edu (307) 760-6674
2. Contests
The series will include 5 contests, all to be hosted at the University of Wyoming
Meat Lab:
Oct. 5, 2026 (at the conclusion of the Wyoming Youth Meat Judging Camp)
Jan. 8, 2027 (in conjunction with the Western National Roundup Youth Workout hosted by UWyo)
Feb. 15, 2027 (at the conclusion of the Spring workout hosted by UWyo)
Mar. 24, 2027 (WY State FFA contest)*
Date TBD for April 2027 (WY State 4-H contest)*
Full contest details for each contest will be posted on the University of Wyoming
Meat Judging Facebook page, sent out to Wyoming 4-H agents and Ag teachers, and advertised
on the American Meat Science Association webpage .
Youth do not need to compete in all contests to be eligible for series year-end awards.
See the Year-end Awards section below for more details.
Contests will include 6 classes for youth to place, 30 questions for youth to answer
(5 questions/class), and 30 retail ID cuts for youth to identify (species, primal,
cut, cookery method). Questions will be answered one class at a time without the use
of notes.
*Youth who are residents of Wyoming must compete in at least one of the full State
FFA or 4-H contests completing all classes, questions, reasons (State 4-H only), retail
ID, and beef grading (State FFA only) included in the state contest. If a Wyoming
youth wishes to only compete in one of the full State 4-H and FFA contests, but wants
to compete in the other for this series, they may do so and will only be required
to complete the classes, questions, and retail ID that make up the series contest;
they will not complete more than this even if there is additional product included
in the state contest. If youth are not residents of WY, they will compete in the State
FFA and/or 4-H contest completing only the classes, questions, and retail ID that
make up the series contest; they will not complete more than this even if there is
additional product included in the state contest. The series contest and state contest
will be considered as one meaning youth will only physically compete once and their
score will be tabulated for the state contest separate from the score tabulated for
the series contest. Only their series contest score will be counted for the series
contest awards and year-end awards.
3. The series is open to all youth
18 years old and younger as of Jan. 1, 2027
4. Age Divisions
Junior (10 and under as of Jan. 1, 2027)
Intermediate (11 – 13 as of Jan. 1, 2027)
Senior (14 – 18 as of Jan. 1, 2027)
*The Jan. 1, 2027 date is used to align with Wyoming 4-H age
5. Competitive Divisions
Novice – open to youth who have not received instruction in meat judging or competed
in a youth meat judging contest prior to entering their first contest of the series.
This division is intended as an invitation for youth to explore meat judging and compete
against others who also have no prior experience. It is the hope that participation
in this division will encourage their continued involvement in future years.
Limited – open to youth who have received instruction in meat judging but not yet
competed in a youth meat judging contest prior to entering their first contest of
the series. This division is intended to foster new interest in meat judging for youth
that have been exposed to it but have not yet competed.
Experienced – open to all other youth not eligible for the Novice or Limited divisions
Youth will declare their division when registering for their first contest of the
series (note: their first contest does not have to be the Oct 5th contest, it may
be any throughout the series). Division eligibility will be decided by the contestant
and his/her coach/parent. Any questions regarding eligibility or concerns with eligibility
will need to be presented in writing to McKensie Phillips.
Once entered into their first contest within a specific division for the 2026-2027
series, youth will compete in that division through the entire series earning points
towards that division’s year-end awards. After a youth competes in the Novice or Limited
division during the 2026-2027 series, they will only be eligible as an Experienced
division competitor in later series.
6. Contest awards
Awards for each contest will be given to the youth with the highest and second highest
point earning in each Age/Competitive division.
Novice Junior | Novice Intermediate | Novice Senior
Limited Junior | Limited Intermediate | Limited Senior
Experienced Junior | Experienced Intermediate | Experienced Senior
Ties will be broken by the individual’s Retail ID score - the higher Retail ID score
will earn the higher total contest ranking. In the event there is still a tie after
considering the individual’s Retail ID score, ties will be broken on the individual’s
Questions score – the higher Questions score will earn the higher total contest ranking.
7. Year-end awards
Youth will compete for year-end awards in each Age and Competitive Division combination:
Novice Junior | Novice Intermediate | Novice Senior
Limited Junior | Limited Intermediate | Limited Senior
Experienced Junior | Experienced Intermediate | Experienced Senior
Year-end awards within each division will be given to the youth who earn the highest
and second highest point total throughout the series.
Youth are only eligible to receive a year-end award if they compete in at least one
of the WY State contests (FFA: March 24, 2027; 4-H: TBD)
Year-end point earnings will be based as follows:
Within each contest,
a) The high point individual from each Age/Competitive division will receive 100 points.
b) Every individual will be scored on a percentage of the high point individual’s
score within that same Age/Competitive division. (EX: If John Doe is the high individual
in the Novice Intermediate division with a score of 540, every Novice Intermediate
will have their score calculated to a percent out of 540, rounded to the nearest hundredth,
and this % will be their series points from that contest. (i.e. 535/540 = 99.07, 521/540
= 96.48, etc.)
The three highest contest point earnings for each youth will be totaled, and this
total will be used to rank youth in each Age/Competitive division for year-end awards.
In the case of a tie, the youth with the best rank finish in the series contest hosted
as part of a WY state contest that they compete in will win the tie. If the youth
competes in both the State FFA and State 4-H contest, his/her highest rank finish
will be used. (EX: If John Doe and Sally Sue are tied in the Limited Senior division
for series year-end awards and John finished 4th in the series contest hosted with
the State 4-H contest while Sally finished 10th, John would be
declared the Champion and Sally would be declared the Reserve Champion).
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