Sexton earns second-consecutive Texas Junior Cup

Local 4-H youth Augustus Sexton has earned the Texas Junior Cup top honors back to back, a feat that has not been attained by anyone else. Over the course of eleven months Sexton travelled more than 6,000 miles to livestock judging contests across the state of Texas, participating in 24 contests and earning top honors at nine of them while being in the top 20 at all of them. There are more than 400 kids that participate in the junior division across the state of Texas.       

Livestock judging became a passion for Augustus in his sixth grade year of school, and in seventh, he set a goal to win the state. When he accomplished that goal, which had never been won by a seventh grader, he set the bar higher and determined himself to win it back to back as an eighth grader. 

Using a skillset learned by being involved in the livestock industry, Sexton is able to be competitive at contests with varying degrees of livestock. Livestock judging consists of carefully analyzing animals and measuring them against a standard that is commonly accepted as being ideal.

Livestock judging is also a study of the relationship between an animal’s ideal form and function. When judging, there are four animals of a species in a class that must be ranked first through fourth, comparing each animal against the others in the class.  Traditionally contests have eight classes consisting of cattle, sheep, goats and hogs. 

There are numerous benefits to gain from competing on a livestock evaluation team. 4-Hers are given the opportunity to interact with other future leaders in the livestock industry as well as current collegiate coaches and teams. Youth develop a keen sense of judgement and confidence that as they progress they defend with a set of oral reasons. Participation in livestock judging builds character, observation, exposes kids to multiple towns and stock shows across the state, and helps develop them into a well-rounded individual. 

Sexton has participated in livestock judging camps to enhance his knowledge and understanding of correct selection while learning from some of the best collegiate coaches. In addition he is active in practices held locally with his county Extension agent and takes time to practice at home with online classes. Sexton is thankful that God gave him the ability to understand how to sort livestock in competitions and is using those skills to share and help develop younger 4-H members as well.