ok, I would like to change a few things that happened at our district fair but I don't know where to start and I don't want to sound like crazy mad mommy. The judge they got was a student at UofA. I know he has to learn but here are the problems I seen. 1st The judge didn't know what breeds the birds were. example Mr. Ag teacher assigned to help judge had to call a student of his (she is a friend of my family) to come to the barn and tell the judge what breed the bird was. The judge couldn't find it in the poultry book he brought with him. Mr. Ag teacher knew she would know because the student's friend was showing the same types of bird. This happened several times when he couldn't find it in his book. 2nd The judge didn't know what the colors were. He judged blue birds as bad blacks. He gave all blue birds red ribbons for bad color. He also had to ask what a barred cochin was when judging it. 3rd He didn't know what breeds was bantam and large fowl. 4th When he judged for Grand he said "i don't know, i guess just pick a pretty bird". He didn't know the breeds or colors the say what was best or not! *****Issues besides judge: 1st They judged open with jrs. 2nd They had the 4H poulty mixed in with all the other poultry. 3rd Large fowl should be kept seperate than bantam. 4th pens should be marked for the number of entries you have and ready to use! There is so much more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do I help? Where can I start? I don't want them to think I am picking on them because my kids didn't get grand in district and I know the fair board members don't get paid. I want to help!
Wow, that sounds like a MESS. See if you can find a copy of the Standard of Perfection and refer them to BYC!
Join the fair board they will be more than happy for the help. contact the APA and see if there is a licensed judge in the area that can help.
have you sent your grievance to the fair committee ?if your going to have a show you might as well get chicken people to judge it, even if they aren't experts on all the birds, maybe I'll put my darlings in our county fair see how well the do for reject birds lol.
Quote:No, I have wrote a greivance letter. I just got home a bit ago. I hate that people walk by those pens and think "that is a good bird" or "that is a bad bird".
Quote:They had a UofA doctor for county. He coulld tell you every defect there was in a matter of a min. I don't know why they got this guy. He didn't have a clue about poultry. He just clung tight to he picture book of poultry.
File a grievence, contact who ever headed it up. That is just pure craziness! I haven't been to a show that I didn't see something wrong with but that is WAY rediculous! What ever you do don't sit back and be quiet about it.
Quote:The Mr ag teacher is our Ag teacher my my kids school. I am thinking of calling him next week when fair is over to see what I can do to change what happened for a better show next year. It in not Mr ag teacher's fault, he was just trying to help also but dang! These people have Drs. and degrees plus get paid to judge!
I would just see if you can somehow volunteer for next year. Get in there and help them get the poultry section on track. As you say, the majority of the people typically involved are volunteers and they generally welcome people that can volunteer to help that are knowledgeable in a certain area. It sounds like it was judged similar to how things online are judged, he just went with what he thought were the prettier birds, not by the standard. I'm sure they would welcome the involvement of someone that actually knows about poultry. You could also try to find people from other nearby poultry clubs or the state poultry club to help advise you. I think the suggestion of getting a list of the closest APA judges is a great idea too. Even if it is not an APA show, I would bet you could find one to help you out. I feel your pain, but some of it is just the nature of small fairs. It is generally just a lower level of competition and knowledge. The last county fair I showed at, the "judge" placed one of his own birds ahead of mine as Grand Champion, LOL. Do what you can to get involved and help get the show on track. There are probably people out there that thought the same things you did that would love to help as well.
I know exactly where you're coming from. Two years ago at our little county fair here a trio of Sex Link pullets won best of show, "because they were pretty". The judge was a cattleman and had no knowledge of chickens at all. Well, this year we had our 4-H poultry club leader on the fair board. Like someone else said, they were happy to have the help. We were able to get a judge who was very knowledgeable in poultry. We also had many more birds than ever before. If we are willing to work, I think we can have a pretty good little show here from now on. Maybe you could start an area poultry club and begin to educate people about breeds.
