40 METHODS IN JUDGING AND SELECTION 



Most breed associations, with the exception of horse 

 registry organizations, have adopted a standard of excellence 

 and scale of points for the breed represented. Usually it is 

 not practical to use these standards for show yard or market 

 judging. They serve as an important guide and not as 

 an absolute standard for practical judging, except in 

 special cases, such as scoring for advanced registry in dairy 

 cattle. 



Score Card Judging. From the viewpoint of the student 

 judge, there are three well-defined methods of arriving at 

 the value of an individual or a class of animals. The first 

 is by the score card method, the second by examination which 

 is followed by oral or written comparisons, as practised in 

 advanced classes of live stock judging, and the third by 

 simply placing the animals in their comparative order of 

 merit, as practised in the show ring. Each of these methods, 

 after the first, is perfected by having attained proficiency in 

 the preceding one. The score card is not adapted to practical 

 live stock judging, it being used solely as a means to an end. 

 The score card system of judging is used in the class room 

 primarily to instruct beginners in the fundamental art of 

 judging. Its principal value is in teaching the location and 

 value of the various parts of an animal. After proficiency 

 is obtained in this part of the work, the score card is usually 

 replaced by more advanced methods and practices. 



Practically the only value of the score card, aside from 

 that mentioned, is its use in standardizing the value of an 

 individual animal. It is used for this purpose largely by 

 dairy cattle record associations in conjunction with advanced 

 registry tests. Certain score card requirements are often 

 employed by these associations in measuring the value of 

 both male and female animals. In reality the score card 

 is not practicable in live stock judging because a complete 

 balance of points or a true decision cannot always be logically 

 obtained. If there was a fixed unit of value to each part of 

 the animal, regardless of the development of other correlated 

 parts, such a method might be satisfactorily employed. 

 However, the value of an animal varies greatly for special 

 purposes, this depending on the relative degree of perfection 



