ABOVE: Coach Jeff Kurt, left, stands with Avery Kurt, Tyler Kurt, Merritt Pomerenke and Isaac Stone after their fifth place finish at state which qualified them for the National Livestock Judging final in Kansas City. Submitted photo.

FAIRMONT – With a full year under its belt, the Fairmont FFA Livestock Judging team is ready for its final stop of the season at the American Royal Nationals in Kansas City on Sunday.

The team’s season kicked off around this time last year, when the varsity team of Avery Kurt, Tyler Kurt, Merritt Pomerenke and Isaac Stone qualified at regionals to make it to the state competition. In the spring, this team finished fifth out of the 35 teams that had qualified from regional competitions across the state, clinching one of the five spots available from Minnesota for the American Royal Nationals.

This is the first time since FFA Livestock Judging was revived at Fairmont in 2012 that they have made it to the American Royal Nationals.

FFA Livestock Judging Team Coach Jeff Kurt said Livestock Judging is about developing several different attributes.

“You’re developing critical thinking, decision making and public speaking skills to evaluate and rank animals based on industry standards,” he said. “The students learn to assess traits and structures around performance and then effectively communicate those reasons using industry terminology and collaboration.”

Kurt said students are given a time limit to analyze the strength and weaknesses of a certain class of livestock like cows, pigs, sheep, or goats and then rank the animals from best to worst.

With a tenth grader, two seniors and a now college student on their team, Kurt said this group has had time to develop together.

“They have that building knowledge and experience that helped them to place in the top five at state this last year,” he said. “The prior year, we were 10th place, then last year, we were able to build on that and get a top five finish. It shows your hard work and perseverance and more experience pays off.”

To get this level, being one of the top Livestock Judging teams in the state, Fairmont Agriculture Teacher and FFA Chapter Advisor Nick Pease said it comes from good leadership.

“[Jeff] Kurt is the one who comes in here,” he said. “He works with the kids. He has an eye for livestock, and he teaches these kids what they need to be looking for as an industry standard.”

The American Royal Nationals is also something Kurt’s familiar with on the other side, as he was on the champion collegiate team at Iowa State that won the American Royal Nationals in 1996. Being a coach now while having the experience as a competitor is something that has given perspective.

“I was very fortunate to have some really good coaches,” Kurt said. “I started judging in high school, and had some good coaches in high school, and then we had some really elite coaches at Iowa State. Some really good mentors. I try to use those skills they were using when they were teaching us to teach students here at Fairmont.”

Fairmont is also entering this competition coming off a tune-up at Regionals, where the team placed fourth and qualified for the state convention in April. The season is just starting for the 2025-26 team, of which all but Tyler Kurt remain on due to Kurt being in college now. Pease said it was good to have a competition right before Nationals, but it will be a big step-up for them on Sunday.

“Out of 50 points, probably a lot of them might be about that 35 to 38 [at regionals], which is pretty good,” he said. “Once you get up to the state level, those kids are judging anywhere from probably 42 to 48 as an average. Once you get to the national level, most of those kids are judging those classes the way they’re supposed to. A lot of times these kids are going to be judging 50s.”

When the competition is that fierce, Pease said an importance will be placed on how well their team can defend their judgements and reasonings.

“I’d say our kids are very well prepared to do very well now,” he said. “You can argue with the head judge, because that’s the hard part about this. It’s one opinion versus another. As a contestant, you have to think, ‘I tell this judge why they’re wrong if they judge this class differently than I did.’ That’s the kind of mentality. You have to be right and you are right.”

Looking forward for this team, as they come off of a good regionals, Pease said they are looking to continue developing a pedigree and successful program at Fairmont.