MURFREESBORO — Middle
Tennessee State University will host the fourth annual Heart of Tennessee
Junior Meat Goat Classic that will bring 75 boys and girls from across
Tennessee to campus.
The event will be held starting at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3,
and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Tennessee Livestock Center,
1720 Greenland Drive in Murfreesboro. For parking and building location, a
printable campus map can be found at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap14-15.
Students in grades 4 through 12 from 20 counties will be
competing for prizes. For the event schedule, rules to be posted before the
event begins and more, visit http://www.hotmeatgoatclassic.com/Heart-of-Tennessee.html.
Midstate counties represented with entries this year include
Bedford, Cannon, DeKalb, Dickson, Lawrence, Lincoln, Robertson, Rutherford,
Smith, Sumner, Williamson, Wilson and White. West Tennessee entries will come
from Decatur, Dyer, Gibson, Henderson and Tipton counties. East Tennessee will
have entries from Cumberland and Hamblen counties.
The youth entries’ deadline was six weeks before the event.
No late entries will be accepted. However, late entries will be allowed in the
Adult Showmanship Class.
“The event combines the educational experience with the
competition class shows,” said Jessica Carter, MTSU associate professor in
animal science, who organized registration. “They (youth entrants) work hard,
and they get rewarded, too.”
About $17,000 in prize money will be awarded, said Carter,
who added that the Tennessee Department of Agriculture is a major event
sponsor.
The main competition classes will be skillathon, showmanship
and classes for wethers (castrated male goats) and commercial and registered
does (female goats). Skillathon covers all aspects of goat production,
identification, goat knowledge quiz, quality assurance and milk quality and
handling.
One of the most popular activities is the costume class,
where entries turn clever-to-outrageous ideas into outfits for them and their
goats.
Brian Faris, an animal science professor at Kansas State
University, is serving as judge for the competition.
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