BY CLIFF SMELLEY
A roomful of people provided good practice for Bradford County 4-H member Shayna Durrance, who’ll be competing at the national level in public speaking in Denver in January.
Durrance had the chance to speak at the Bradford 4-H auction, which was held Nov. 7 at Starke’s Gov. Charley E. Johns Conference Center.
“I thought it would be a good idea to let Miss Shayna showcase her public speech about her journey of livestock judging,” Bradford 4-H Youth Development Agent Bailea Scarborough said, noting that it would be the largest crowd Durrance had spoken in front of.
The speech earned Durrance first place at the district level and third place at the state level.
“We’re very proud of her and proud to send her to nationals and help support her,” Scarborough said.
Durrance began by telling the crowd she is 16 and president of her 4-H club, Green Acres. She has shown rabbits since she was 4 and has exhibited breeding and market cattle for eight years.
“Throughout the years, I’ve had many successes and accomplishments — too many to mention in a speech,” Durrance said. “However, I am going to be talking about the one that’s taught me the most life skills in the past three years. That is being on the state-champion livestock-judging team from Bradford 4-H.
“In 2019, I competed in my first livestock-judging contest. For those who don’t know, livestock judging is where you judge a class of four animals to determine how well of a breeding animal they’ll be in the future or how well of a market animal they’ll be at slaughter and eventually on your plate.
“I agreed to try judging even though I knew nothing about it.”
The result was a second-place finish for her and her team in the Junior division.
“This sparked my love and interest for judging,” Durrance said. “I participated in my first judging camp in the summer of 2019 in Union County. On our mock-contest day, I placed a class of market hogs, breeding does and breeding ewes correctly.
“My love and interest grew even more.”
Durrance said she waited approximately three years for an opportunity to be part of a judging team. That occurred in October 2021 when Bradford Extension Livestock and Natural Resources Agent Lizzie Whitehead decided to start a Bradford team.
“I started going to practices weekly and learning more of the basics,” Durrance said. “When it came time to learn how to write and say reasons, which is an explanation of why you placed the class the way you did, I was beyond nervous. Public speaking in a room with someone I didn’t know was one of my worst fears.
“I just kept going to practice and giving 110 percent to be the best for the team.”
The first year saw the team compete in a few contests and do “exceptionally well,” Durrance said. She then attended the University of Florida judging camp in the summer of 2022.
“I was placed in the advanced group, which helps more with reasons than it does with placing classes,” Durrance said. “This camp helped get me more comfortable in the reasons room and improved my reasons sets tremendously.”
Durrance said when practices for her Bradford 4-H team resumed, the team not only had Whitehead as coach, but also Kyle Dyksterhouse and Carson Williams as assistant coaches. Dyksterhouse competed collegiately out west, while Willison was on a successful high-school team.
“These two worked with us one-on-one in the reasons room and with sorting through classes,” Durrance said. “Over time, they wanted my reasons sets to be longer, which requires a lot of memorization skills. With their help of finding a new way to set up my reasons, not only did my sets get longer, but my memorization skills improved drastically.
“We continued to practice and go to contests to get ready for the state contest in April. Little did we know, the four-man team from Bradford County would be named the 2023 Florida 4-H State-Champion Livestock-Judging Team.”
Durrance and her team would compete at the national level in Louisville, Kentucky, which had them fundraising and practicing over the summer. Durrance’s summer also consisted of attending several judging camps, including one at the University of Tennessee.
“This one stood out to me the most, though,” she said of the Tennessee camp. “We got to work one-on-one with the college’s team in the reasons room. They gave me many tips and tricks for nationals.
“Staying at this camp and at hotels for other contests taught me how important it is to always be responsible for yourself and punctual.
“At the camp, we got to stay in a dorm room with one roommate. It gave you the feeling of being on your own and being an adult, and you had to be on time for the camp.
“That’s not the only thing I took home from this camp. On the back of our camp T-shirts, there’s a quote that I not only use in livestock judging, but in every competitive event that I compete in. It’s a quote by (legendary UT Women’s Basketball Coach) Pat Summitt, and it says, ‘Here’s how I’m going to beat you. I’m going to outwork you. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.’”
Still, Durrance admitted she was nervous about competing at nationals.
“My number-one fear was I was going to bomb all of my classes and all of my reasons sets,” she said. “There was one thing that gave me hope. In the wise words of Mr. Clay Whitehead with the UF Animal Sciences department, ‘It’s your opinion. If you want to be wrong, then be wrong.’ He said this during a restaurant debate while we were in Louisville.
“We placed 20th out of 30 teams and all (team members) had some personal highs. The personal high I’m the most proud of is talking to 48 out of 50 on a set of market-hog reasons.”
Durrance, after presenting her reasons as she did at nationals, said, “Although I cannot compete at the state contest again, I can still compete at county fairs and other smaller contests.
“In the past three years, I have competed in a total of 27 contests. Only six of those I came home empty handed — one of them being nationals. At the end of the day, the ribbons and banners you get are just something to say, ‘I did good on this one day.’ What really matters is what you learn and hold onto for the future.
“Livestock judging has taught me how important it is to always be responsible for yourself and to be punctual. It has helped me improve my memory skills drastically, which not only helps in the reasons room, but on other teams I compete on as well.
“Livestock judging has taught me how to work professionally with people who make it difficult, how to receive constructive criticism and use it to better myself. Livestock judging has taught me how to be respectful and mature, even when it’s hard.
“Most importantly, livestock judging has helped me with my public speaking. Without it, I wouldn’t be up here speaking in front of you today.”
Durrance said her future plans include competing on a junior-college team out west and then transferring to the University of Tennessee to compete.
Livestock judging became a passion and has had a tremendous impact on Durrance.
“In the words of Dr. Harlan Ritchie with the University of Michigan at the Animal Sciences department, ‘Judging brings out the confidence in those who may be timid and humbles those who tend to be conceited.’ I couldn’t agree more.
“Livestock judging has done so much for me and has taught me so much. I will always cherish it and never take it for granted.
“This has been my journey of judging. Thank you.”
