Judging Of Corriedales And Merinos Finished

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 18

Judging Of Corriedales And Merinos Finished

The judging of the sheep classes finished soon after noon yesterday. In all but two of the sections judging was completed on Wednesday, and it was only in the big Corriedale section and the sizeable Merino section that judging was continued yesterday. Three white-coated Corriedale judges worked on the selection of the best group of six sheep, and four judges finally selected the ram champion from the D. S. Johns Trust (Culverden) as the outstanding exhibit in the whole of the section. The Australian Merino judge, Mr J. F. Litchfield, of Cooma, New South Wales, also completed the judging of this section of the show. He said afterwards that he had been particularly impressed with the ewes, which in his opinion were a good type of commercial sheep.

Corriedale The champion ram from the D. S. Johns Trust (Culverden)—a six tooth—was awarded the Meat and Wool, Ltd. challenge cup for the outstanding winning exhibit in the Corriedale section. It was the second time that this sheep had won this honour. As a hogget the ram won the cup in 1961. The choice of the Culverden ram for the cup was made by Messrs A. G. O. Johnston (Geraldine), D. L. Ensor (Rakaia Gorge), D, A. Harvie (Palmerston) and A. M. Saunders (Ashburton) Mr Johnston, as spokesman for

the judges, said the cup winner had a wonderful head and top line. Mr Johnston said that the single ewe hogget winner from the estate H. T. Little was a close contender for the award, being a sheep of exceptionally high quality. Messrs Ensor, Harvie, and Johnston reviewed the groups of six sheep including a woolly ram, one shear or over, a shorn ram of any age, a woolly ram under 18 months, a ewe, one shear or over, with lamb at foot, a shorn ewe of any age (with lamb at foot if over 18 months) and a woolly ewe under 18 months. Mr Johnston said that as it was a group class the six sheep each had to be good individuals, and some of the groups, while containing outstanding individuals, had lost marks as a group. Nevertheless the quality of the groups had been very high and the main prize-winners had been comparable with the best standards set in previous years. The winning group from the estate H. T. Little, which takes the James Reid memorial challenge cup, contained the six most even sheep in type and quality, said Mr Johnston. Mr Saunders, who judged the shorn adult ram and adult ewe classes said that the standard had been quite up to that of other years with some of the top sheep being particularly good, especially among the ewes.

Merino The grand champion Merino ram, which was also the medium combing champion, was quite a remarkable sheep for his age, said Mr Litchfield. This ram, from the estate James Stevenson (Flaxton), would stand up in any company, he said, and was remarkable in the way that he was keeping bulk and quality in his fleece. The champion strong combing ram was from B. J. Paterson (Ranfurly) and the fine combing title-holder from the estate H. Gibson (Malvern Downs. Tarras). “I was very impressed with the ewes,” said Mr Litchfield. ‘Tn general they are good, big. well-sprung sheep and they struck me as being a valuable type of commercial sheep capable of rearing a good lamb.” Another Ranfurly sheep from B. J. Paterson took the grand ewe championship and was the strong combing champion. This sheep, from the 18 to 30 months age classification. was a very deep bodied ewe carrying a lot of wool, very well sprung and a very good type of commercial sheep, he said. B. J. Paterson also won the medium combing ewe championship and the estate H. Gibson won the fine combing title.