MCA Collegiate Cattlemen's Showdown Instructions
Thank you for your interest and participation in this year’s Collegiate Cattlemen’s Showdown! We are proud to offer this opportunity for discussion to passionate collegiate cattlemen and women from across Missouri. Please read this entire document as it includes the outline explaining how this competition will run as well as other useful information. Please pay attention to any provided deadlines and fill out all necessary forms. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Courtney Collins, MCA Manager of Membership at (573) 999 – 2499 or [email protected].
Selecting Participants
We will select six total participants for this event – four of those participants will be collegiate chapter members, one from each chapter, and two of those participants will be at-large. In the event that a collegiate chapter does not have an interested member register before the deadline, we will select an additional at-large participant. All participants must be current MCA or MJCA members. If you are not already a member, please apply to become a member here.
Collegiate Members:
Each Missouri Cattlemen’s Association Collegiate Chapter is asked to choose multiple representatives. Representatives can be picked in any way including a vote, a college-level showdown round, etc. Once a representative is chosen, they should complete this registration form by Friday, December 1. All collegiate representatives are asked to attend the preliminary competition happening via Zoom on Thursday, December 14 at 6:00 p.m. as a practice round.
At-Large Members:
MCA will select two at-large participants for this year’s showdown. We will select these participants during a preliminary competition happening via Zoom on Thursday, December 14 at 6:00 p.m. At-large participants could include students who are not affiliated with a collegiate cattlemen’s chapter or students who were not selected as their chapter’s representative. If you would like to compete as an at-large participant, please complete this registration form by Friday, December 1.
*A physical copy of the registration form is attached. It is recommended you complete the electronic copy, but if you are unable to, you may complete the attached form and mail it to the Missouri Cattlemen’s Assoc. at 2306 Bluff Creek Dr. Columbia, MO 65201.
If You Are Selected
Once selected at the collegiate or at-large level, participants will compete in the debate-style competition at the 56th Annual Missouri Cattle Industry Convention happening January 19-20, 2024 at the Margaritaville Lake Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks. This final round of the competition will be held in person on January 20 at 1:00 p.m. All six finalists are invited to attend the annual banquet that evening, where we will announce the winners. MCA will cover the event registration cost, banquet ticket, and will provide hotel rooms if necessary.
Structure
The Collegiate Cattlemen’s Showdown will be structured in a debate style. The competition will be judged by 2-3 judges based on the rubric below and will also include a moderator/timekeeper. Students should be dressed in business professional attire. The debate is based off of 4-6 questions related to the cattle and/or agriculture industry. Each question will be considered one round; at the beginning of each round, participants will have 30 seconds to make an opening statement, followed by 7 minutes of open debate, and finished with 1 minute to make a closing statement. Participants are allowed 1 page of notes, front and back, and are encouraged to research and review the questions prior to competition.
Preliminary Round Questions
These questions will only be used for the preliminary round. Questions for the final round will be released once the final 6 participants are chosen.
1. More than 90% of Missouri feeder calves are exported outside of Missouri to be fed and processed. Is this good, bad, or both? Why or why not? What could we do to keep more Missouri feeder calves in our home state? Bridging the gap between rural producers and urban consumers is a priority among all agricultural groups.
2. What is currently being done to close this gap, what can we continue to do, or is it a lost cause?
3. Beef production, including the production of animal feed, is responsible for only 3.3% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. This is dramatically lower than the often-misquoted global livestock figure of 14.5%. Yet, many elected leaders point to limiting beef consumption as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If the science isn’t enough, how can we advocate for our industry reverse this stigma against beef production?