By Rhys Baker

The 2024 Kansas State University (KSU) Meat Judging Team brought a National Championship home to Manhattan. Four KSU student team members ranked in the Top 10 overall, and three students were recognized as All-Americans. Clay Center Community High School Graduate and current KSU Student Reece Geer was a member of the National Championship Team, won third place overall, and was named a First-Team All-American. 

Geer says students are not just asked to participate on meat judging teams; the process is competitive, and students must first take a class with Dr. Travis O’Quinn, the K-State Meat judging Coach and Faculty Advisor, “I had friends on the team. I thought, what do I have to lose? I’ll take the class to see if I’m interested. And then, if I am, I’ll be on the team, so I took the class. I learned that in meat judging contests, there’s a right and a wrong answer. There’s no gray area. For me, that clicked because I like right and wrong answers.” 

Participants judge two classes of beef carcasses: a regular class and a pricing class. Then, there are two classes of lamb carcasses, two pork carcasses, and cuts of meat. When judging meats, participant judges look for cutability.  Geer says when judging, participants look for trimness and muscling combined, in other words, lots of lean muscles, like a steak. Geer says taking the course and learning to judge was similar to learning a different language, “Judging terms are difficult, there’s a whole lingo that just comes along placing classes and all that. I once tried to describe a yield grade to someone and realized how challenging it is to get the lingo down. And with meat judging, there are a lot of rules. In the end, it’s a lot of fun when you finally get it and understand it. But, like, the process of learning it is a lot.”

The year of eligibility for students participating in collegiate judging includes eight contests, four in the spring, and four in the fall, including the National Championship Competition. Geer’s team competed against other universities such as Texas A&M, Texas Tech, North Dakota State, Illinois, and Oklahoma State. The last time KSU brought home a National Championship in meat judging was 1992.

Retired Kansas State University Department of Animal Sciences and Industry professor Dr. Dell Allen created the First-Team All-American distinction. The award committee uses an equation that includes the student’s grade-point average and their scoring at two contests and the national championship. The top four scoring students are awarded First Team All-American, and the following four students are awarded Second Team All-American. Reece was awarded the First Team All-American distinction.