June 1, 2006

NDSU Meat Judging Team Places in Competition

Four members of North Dakota State University’s meat judging team placed in the top 10 in the recent Southeastern Meat Judging Contest at Ohio State University.

Contestants and their rankings were:

• Luke Keller, Mandan – first in combined beef, second in beef judging, fourth in beef grading and ninth overall
• Jacee Lund, Carrington – first in specifications, which are recommendations for further processing of beef, pork and lamb into wholesale and/or retail portions for uniform national marketing of products; seventh in lamb judging
• Jenna Schmidt, Pipestone, Minn. – tie for fourth in placing of classes, fifth in beef judging, seventh in combined beef, eighth in beef grading, a tie for 10th in lamb judging and 10th overall
• Beth Brandt, Maxbass – tie for 10th in lamb judging

Kris Schulz, Crystal, and Johann Thomasson, Edinburg, also are members of the team.

The team competed against teams from seven other universities. The team generally competes in five nationally sponsored contests each year.

“The Southeastern contest gives NDSU the opportunity to compete against other teams which are similar in training at this point in the contest year,” said Paul Berg, the team’s coach and a professor in the NDSU Animal and Range Sciences Department.

“Doing well at the Southeastern is important from a confidence-building standpoint, demonstrating that NDSU students can compete successfully against those from the likes of the University of Illinois, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri or Ohio State, but also to give the students the incentive to continue to improve so that they can maintain their place on the awards podium,” he added.

NDSU is one of only three schools among more than 30 land-grant universities with meat judging teams to have had a team continuously since 1953.

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Source: Paul Berg, (701) 231-7683, paul.berg@ndsu.edu
Editor: Ellen Crawford, (701) 231-5391, ellen.crawford@ndsu.edu

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