Reasons Class

Submitted October 1, 2010

As a young judging team member, it was my most dreaded line imaginable, “Ok folks,” the coach would announce as we began viewing a pen of animals, “Reasons class!”

Anyone who has evaluated livestock—or any other judging class—in 4-H, FFA or college has likely experienced the same anxiety. It was one thing to sort four individuals in order of their perceived quality, but quite another to be asked to explain and defend your “reasons” for ranking them in this fashion.

Late last month, I had the opportunity to serve on the “beef committee” at a collegiate judging contest and judge contestants’ reasons. I have an even greater appreciation of this skill today than when I was in school. A set of reasons allows students to give an account…in a relatively brief time period…for their actions.

I will admit; I disliked reasons. I was never comfortable or proficient with the format of delivering solid oral reasons. And I–like many students—thought that I would never need this skill after graduation. WRONG. Now is the perfect opportunity to step out of our comfort zones and start delivering our “reasons” to the consuming public.

“WHY?” has become a question asked by everyone about everything. When consumers ask “Why,” we need to be ready to give factual answers in a confident, convincing manner…just like in the reasons room. And we must be ready to do it in both oral and written fashion. Social media has become the standard for sharing information. Consumers now flock to sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for information, not just entertainment. We need to be on there as well, telling our stories in a natural, positive, easily understood manner.

For years, ag producers have adjusted our priorities to better produce great tasting, wholesome food in the most efficient way possible. Along the way, though, we have forgotten to tell our customers the reasons for doing this. Merely “placing the class correctly” is no longer enough. When consumers ask “Why?” we need to step forward and give a fact-based, confident set of reasons.

As an industry, we MUST focus on better communicating the methods we use to raise healthy, wholesome food products. Joining progressive industry organizations to inform consumers and elected officials about all aspects of our business is a necessity. But so is personal communication with our urban and suburban consumers and elected officials. They are yearning for information, but in the absence of factual information, they will settle for the trash that is being propagated by anti-meat groups.

This is no time to get nervous and skip out on reasons. Many U.S. consumers think we have not been placing our priorities correctly, and it’s time that we account for our actions.

And in this critical contest for consumers’ confidence, we cannot afford to score a “zero.”