Media advisory issued March 4, 2003, effective immediately.
For media inquiries, contact Caroline Booth Lara, Communications Specialist, (580) 224-6379.
  email: cblara@noble.org.

Live Animal Evaluation Contest Set for March 15

ARDMORE, Okla. — Come and hone your cattle evaluation skills in the Live Animal Evaluation Contest on Saturday, March 15, at the Noble Foundation's Pasture Demonstration Farm (PDF). The contest is held in conjunction with the delivery of steers for the Foundation's Junior Beef Excellence Program.

The Live Animal Evaluation Contest is open to anyone who is interested and is divided into four divisions: 4-H (youth), FFA (youth), adult and expert (Foundation employees and past adult winners).

"The Live Animal Evaluation Contest was added to the Junior Beef Excellence Program's weigh-in as a fun and educational way to reinforce the need for improving beef carcass quality to the kids as well as their parents," said Ryan Reuter, livestock specialist at the Noble Foundation.

In the contest, participants will judge five live steers and estimate their carcass parameters. Scorecards will be submitted the day of the contest, and winners will be announced when the carcass data is returned. The awards program is March 31. Winners in each division will receive a custom "champion" jacket.

"We will have all the information participants need, and we'll instruct them how to do the evaluation," Reuter said. "So novices are not only welcome, but are actually the people we really want to be there."

Participants in the contest will "get a lot of education in what makes a 'good' steer and why we breed beef cattle the way we do," Reuter added.

The Live Animal Evaluation Contest will get underway at PDF at 9 a.m. and concludes at 11:30 a.m. To get to PDF, take exit 33 off I-35 and go west about 2 miles on Prairie Valley Road to the four-way stop. Turn right (north) on King's Road go about 1 1/4 miles, then turn left (west) on Noble Foundation road and go 1/2 mile to PDF.

To see the results of last year's contest, go to http://www.noble.org/Ag/JrBeef/2002/LiveAnimalEvaluation/index.htm on the Web. For more information, call the Foundation at (580) 223-5810.

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The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a non-profit organization conducting agricultural, forage biotechnological, and plant biology research; providing grants to numerous non-profit charitable, educational and health organizations; and assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs.

To learn more, visit the Noble Foundation Web site at http://www.noble.org.

More news releases available at www.noble.org/Press_Release