A premier exhibitor award will be made in each of the following divisions:

a. Junior - 4th, 5th and 6th grades
b. Junior High - 7th and 8th grades
c. Senior - 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades

The premier exhibitor in each division will be determined by:

(Exhibitor must enter all four events to be considered for premier exhibitor)

a. Herdsman (skillathon) score
b. Total points earned by the exhibitor's highest placing
     individual market hog or pen of three
c. showmanship score
d. Actual percent lean score calculated in the carcass class

1. Herdsman Contest (Skillathon)

This event consists of different activities that will evaluate an exhibitor's knowledge gained from participation in the swine project. Each exhibitor will participate in the skillathon as an individual (not a team). The activities will increase in difficulty as the grade division increases. Examples of skillathon activities are:

• feed identification
• breed identification
• meat identification
• production practices & records
• health practices
• others

Total points possible in the skillathon are 100.

2. Market Hog Score

Each exhibitor will receive a score for their highest placing market hog or pen of three as follows:

1st 100 points        6th 90 points
2nd 98 points         7th 88 points
3rd 96 points          8th 86 points
4th 94 points          9th 84 points
5th 92 points         10th 82 points

All others - 80 points

3. Carcass Class

Points will be awarded on the basis of calculated percent lean. Each exhibitor will select one hog to be evaluated by the Real-Time Ultrasound machine. The hogs will be scored from top to bottom on the basis of percent lean as follows:

The scores used for the carcass contest will be the calculated percent lean earned by each pig. Usually, the score will vary from a high of approximately 60% lean to a low of 48%. Since there is usually very little differences in the % lean of the top pigs this will be a very fair system to score the carcass class.

4. Showmanship Classes

Showmanship will be conducted in each of the three divisions (senior, junior high and junior). The scoring will be as follows in each division:

1st 100 points         6th 90 points
2nd 98 points          7th 88 points
3rd 96 points           8th 86 points
4th 94 points           9th 84 points
5th 92 points           10th 82 points

All others - 80 points