The Youth Stockmanship Contest challenges participants to improve their cattle handling and processing skills based on Beef Quality Assurance guidelines. This is modeled after the Top Hand Contest hosted by the UGA Beef Team and may soon feed into a national competition hosted at NCBA convention (possibly in 2026).  

The team at UGA has some great video resources for their contest here: https://beef.caes.uga.edu/programs/educational/top-hand-contest/#:~:text=The%20Top%20Hand%20Stockmanship%20and,employees%20for%20the%20beef%20industry.

Regional Contests:

April 10-Brown Loam Branch Experiment Station, Raymond (entries due March 27)

April 15-White Sands Experiment Station, Poplarville (entries due March 31)

April 29-Prairie Research Unit, Prairie (entries due April 14)

Note: Teams may enter multiple regional contests, but only their highest score will count for state contest qualification. If a regional event has less than 2 teams entered, it will be cancelled, and participants will be offered the opportunity to compete in another regional event. Only the top 5 overall scores will be eligible for the state competition.

State Contest:

May 19-MSU Beef Unit, Starkville

Teams should be signed up by an agent/advisor/volunteer using the link below:

https://forms.gle/JbSmx4BhPD2JfSJV9