The OYE website has a link for carcass data for the top 3 animals of all four species. They have the pics with all of the carcass data for each animal. This was done in a really timely fashion and is a good thing for people to see. All three goats cut out extremely well. They all dressed out close to 60% which is good for a goat. Duke’s goat had a 2.9″ ribeye area and had .07″ of fat.

I have had several jobs that dealt with carcasses. In high school, I had a really fun job working the meat counter at a grocery store. Best job I ever had. At OSU, I took a really good meat animal evaluation class which led me to judge meats and then work at the meat lab at OSU. These were both very educational and fun experiences. As an ag teacher, I enjoyed teaching meat ID and carcass terms for livestock judging. Now, I judge meat on a daily basis–as the Dragon Lady brings it to me on a plate.

Although the show ring and the real world are not always aligned together, I do think it is important for us to know what we are producing. We sometimes get to far away from that. I can remember when they used to do the carcass contest at OKC with the top two barrows of every class being slaughtered, data collected and prizes paid for having a top carcass. I always enjoyed studying the data off the hogs. I also remember the golden pork chop contest at the state fair.