WASHINGTON — Not a lot of people judge livestock, according to Washington native Kyle Gillooly, a cattle judge who says “You either have a desire to do it or you don’t.” Apparently that desire is a dominant trait in the Gillooly men’s genetic makeup.

Jim Gillooly, Kyle’s dad, has judged cattle since his youth, and Kyle used to travel to shows with him. In doing so, he picked up the desire to be a judge as well. Now Kyle’s son, Grant, who’s not quite 3, is showing interest in handling cattle, according to Jim.

“Kyle had training from the very beginning,” Jim said. “He started showing cattle when he was 7 years old.”

If Grant continues to show an interest in cattle and, later, judging, that’ll be fine with his parents. But Kyle said they won’t force the issue.

Both Kyle and his wife, Jennifer, who’s from Georgia, grew up showing cattle and met 13 years ago at the National Junior Hereford Show in Michigan. They became friends, stayed in touch and saw each other at national shows a couple times a year. “One thing led to another,” Kyle said, and they were married. They live in Georgia, where Jennifer is a nurse and Kyle is cattle manager at Smith Angus Farm.

“It’s how I grew up; it’s how my wife grew up; we met in the same business,” Kyle said. “We’re not going to make our son, but we’ll encourage it and hope he’ll go on and keep the family tradition going.”

Kyle and Jim enjoyed the family tradition together Saturday as they both judged open class cattle shows at the Indiana State Fair. Kyle judged the Angus and Charolais classes, and Jim judged the shorthorns. Jim said they were asked independently by the different breed representatives to judge at the fair on the same day.

They have, at times, judged the same classes together, although it doesn’t happen often. When they do, Jim said, they’re in agreement on what they like from the beginning.

One occasion when they judged together was the national Hereford show in Louisville a few years ago, according to Jim. Afterward, he said, a friend who watched the judging told him Kyle’s a better judge than he is. Jim said it was the biggest compliment he could get, and it came from a trusted buddy.

“I’m proud of him, and I have no doubt he is better than I am. It’s quite an honor to be able to judge at this level of competition,” Jim said, explaining Kyle has judged at the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville and the National Western Stock Show in Denver, among others. “Those are the biggest in the country.”

How To

To get to his level of competence, according to Jim, Kyle had a lot of good experiences and positive influences. He showed cattle and was on judging teams in 4-H and in college at Purdue University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science in 2002.

“His judging coach at Purdue had a good influence, and he’s been around good cattle since then,” Jim said. “He knows the good characteristics. That’s a big advantage.

“He’s one of the really outstanding young judges. One of the most important traits any judge can have is integrity. You have to be honest and not be influenced by who’s showing these animals. He sure does have that.”

Kyle said he looks at the animals’ structure, balance, muscle and volume. He said the cattle need to be built to survive in various conditions and ultimately provide meat.

“You want some muscle,” he said. “Obviously, muscle goes along with why we do what we do — raising them for beef. You want them to be efficient — they’ve got to have some volume, some rib, some capacity.”

Eye appeal factors in to some extent, he said.

“I compare it to judging a beauty contest or a dog show,” he said.

“You look at what attracted you first. Some breeds will have breed characteristics that some people try to keep separate, but other things are basic across all breeds and, really, all species.”

Though he also learned to judge sheep and swine through his 4-H and collegiate experiences, Kyle said he’s always known the most about cattle because that’s what his family raised.

“That’s all I judge now since I have the most expertise in cattle,” he said.

He said he judges a show once a month on average.

“It’s something I enjoy,” Kyle said.

 “I don’t really look at it as a job. I look at it as a teaching experience.”

He said a lot of shows he judges are 4-H and junior shows, which give him the opportunity to teach the youth who are the future of the industry. He said the judging experience helps build character, and he likes to encourage young people to continue working with cattle and be spokespeople for the industry.

Kyle said he’s gotten some of his judging gigs through connections established as Jim’s son. But then he proved himself with his own judging experience and did some networking himself.

“Being part of the judging team was the most important thing I did at Purdue,” Kyle said. “I traveled and met people. ... After you start judging, people remember your name and call.”

Jim also was on the Livestock Judging Team at Purdue, where he received a bachelor’s degree in animal science in 1966.

He continued at Penn State University, where he earned a master’s degree in genetics in 1968.

“I showed cattle all the way through,” he said.

“The judging thing is a very gradual process. You start at the basic level — 4-H contests — then move from there on to the state fair or the regional level and hopefully get to some national shows then.”

According to Jim, judging cattle has offered him some amazing opportunities. He’s judged in more than 30 states and in several foreign countries. One year he judged the national red Angus show in the United States, Canada and South Africa.

“I’ve traveled all over the country,” he said.

“One year I had 14 state fair shows in 17 days.”

Though it got hectic from time to time, trying to get from one show to the next, Jim said his wife, Jane, and their children made the sacrifices necessary for him to do the judging. Now farm work keeps Jim plenty busy.

“I’ve pretty well quit judging now,” he said.

“I’ve had the chance to judge a lot of shows. I’ve judged the national show for 13 breeds. I judge very few now.”

Though Jim said daughters Jami Whitehead and Kerri Dalton showed cattle for a while, they never continued with judging, leaving that a Gillooly guy thing.