Commenting on Classification as a Judge
Jeff Chalk it up to moral relativism, cultural differences, or whatever you want but there are certain things that will get a Midwest judge in trouble if they say them in a Texas jackpot. I’d put this one up there with the show ring commandments…
Thou shalt not openly criticize the classification of a calf if the prospect show uses a three classifier panel.
You are correct, our breeds down here are pretty jacked up. Texans would be surprised if they knew just how many out of state judges ask the ring help what breed they’re on at some point in the Gert/Simbrah/ABC or Limi/Maine/Simmi portions of a show. It's understandable. There’s not a single “class your own” jackpot out there where the judges aren’t embarrassed at having to use certain calf for Angus or Red Angus.
We get it, our steer breeds don’t look much like real life. If you expect to see something similar to a textbook example of breeds walk in the ring, you’re going to be confused.
I don’t think anybody really understands why we have a separate Santa Gertrudis class. Frankly, it feels weird to call them “Santa Gertrudis” instead of just “Gert”. They have zilch to do with the real life breed and if steer breeds were being setup today, they’d be pretty far behind tigerstripes and Beefmasters on the totempole.
But it is what it is. Gerts in the Texas show ring can be just about any color under the sun and that means the same orange that shows up in every other Texas steer “breed” that was influenced by Charolais genetics 10-15 years ago. That extends to Simbrah, Simmental, Limousin, Maine, etc. as well.
There are a lot of reasons people will run animals different breeds than what you’d expect. For some folks, a big reason they go to prospect shows is to see what their animal will look like in the ring with a different type of calf.
If you don’t agree with it, the proper terminology is “if he is able to classify, he will do a lot of damage as a [insert breed here]”. If you think a calf doesn’t fit but know a breed where he would say something like “I think he’d fit in nicely in a [insert breed here].”
If you ignore that advice and openly criticize the classification when a show uses a three judge panel, I promise you’re doing more harm to your own reputation than you are anything else.