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Judging can be a good thing. On Friday, Jan. 24, Mary Elliott Martin received a scholarship for her judging ability–livestock judging ability. 

Martin was joined by friends and family at Chambers Academy, where she attends, on Friday to sign with Northeastern Oklahoma A&M for livestock judging. 

It may not be as common as a football or basketball scholarship but is no less impressive. Martin has been working toward this goal since she was nine years old.

“I started at the Rankins 4H Club and my father took me to the Lee County fair where I saw a cow, and ‘I was like God I wanna show cows’, and he found somebody to give us a cow. It was a Hereford heifer, her name is Bella.”

She started showing as a kid and is, “strictly a cattle person.”

Despite living in a rural area, Martin and her father weren’t sure how one went about showing livestock. 

“I’ll admit I knew nothing, we were starting from the beginning. We knew nothing about cows. We’ve lived on a farm and we ran a cow-calf operation at one point but we hardly knew anything about showing cows,” she said. 

She contacted Grace Gullatt, a livestock judging coach and 4-H extension agent. While she put her in touch with the Lee County coach, Smokey Spears, Gullatt would later go on to coach Martin. 

“Livestock judging…there’s four animals in a class and you rank them the best to the worst, so we judge four species, that’s goats, pigs, cattle and sheep,” Martin explained.  

Her education started, as it often does, in the classroom. 

“[Spears] walked us through class and it was a class of goats,” she recalled. “You look for the biggest one… the best one that can walk, the most feminine, if you’re judging heifers.” 

While making waves in the show industry, the young talent decided to try judging. She explains it simply, but as competitors rise in the ranks judging gets more complex and subjective. 

Judging is a competition, but it is also practical.

“You want them to look like feminine cows and be able to go out and be in production after their show career,” explained Martin. 

As you get older judging becomes more involved. 

“The senior division, so about 14 years old, you start competitively giving reasons on those animals, like why you placed them that way so you can…defend yourself [and the score you gave].”

Judging is where Martin really excelled. The high schooler has traveled around the country with her team, led by Gullett. As a junior, she was chosen, over a senior, to judge at the American Royal in Kansas City, garnering her more attention. In June, Martin was the high individual in the senior division at the Alabama 4H state contest.

However, she said it was the judging camps that propelled her to the next level.  

“I’ve been to around 15 to 20 judging camps. Out in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, Mississippi all those places I’ve gone there and those coaches have poured into me,” Martin said. “Without those coaches pushing me to be who I am today and even my other coaches that are home I would not be where I am today.”

Now she prepares for the next chapter at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. 

 “I always kind of knew that there was a path in this industry for young people…My current coach went to a junior college and through that, I decided that I really would want to pursue it to the next level. I knew that I was good enough to do it and I knew that there were coaches out there that would want me,” Martin explained that judges get more experience at the junior level. At four-year schools, students do not get to judge until their senior year.  

It is easy to tell when speaking with Martin the love she has for livestock judging and its community. 

“I’m looking forward to meeting my new teammates and…my coach her name is Maddie Haynes [I want to get] her opinion on different things in the cattle industry just building my own pathway outside of Alabama to this industry…I just think I think this is a very good opportunity for me to grow as a person and make lifelong friendships.” 

Her competitive aspiration is to be an All-American during college. While Martin plans to take advantage of the experience of competing in college, livestock judging is also a way to prepare her for a career. 

“I’m getting a degree in Ag[riculture] business with a minor in communications so I really hope that I can pour into this industry how it’s poured into me and give back to the youth that like me [who] didn’t really know where to start,” Martin said. 

Martin wants young people to get involved in showing and judging and recommends Gullatt and 4H extension offices as resources. 

“It’s definitely a pathway into another world,” Martin said. “It will get you very very far in life, even if you don’t say it in the industry, the connection you’ll make, the skills you gain; socializing skills, leadership skills…I’ve had multiple people tell me that they knew I was a judging kid just because I was able to walk up to them, shake their hand and have a genuine conversation with them.”