Fat Lamb Competitions Are Helping Judging Standards

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18255, 25 November 1933, Page 14

Fat Lamb Competitions Are Helping Judging Standards

AXE of the advantages of the fat land) competitions in New Zealand is the assistance they give in helping local judging standards in regard to meat requirements’at Smitlilield. One of the profitable means in this respect is the judging on the showgrounds, followed bv the judging of the same pens on the books at. the local freezing works and judging at Smithlield. In the past, too great a difference has been noticed iu the judges’ decisions on the showgrounds and those on the hooks, either in New Zealand or at Smithlield. The district fat lamb competition organised by the .Meat Board on lines proposed by Mr. J. G. Gralmm, of Gisborne, will be a great help in this direction, for it demonstrates the Home requirements in a forcible manner. One of Mr. Graham’s aims in drawing up his proposals two years ago was to secure uniformity iu the judging in New Zealand and at Smithfield. For a long time, judges on the hoof at the shows in Now Zealand selected sheep as winners that were not wanted by judges of quality iu the London trade The Home judges invariably placed the carcases differently front the selections made by the judge on the h.oof. Allowing for faults in carcases not being apparent to judges on the hoot, there were too many divergences of opinion between the live stock judge ami the ;Smithlield judge. Recently, there appeared signs of the live stock judges getting down more to the desired freezing quality, and the fat lamb judge at the Gisborne Show last month selected sheep that came up to the freezing standard, when judged on the hooks at Haiti. It will be interesting to see how the London judging compares. The Wairarapa judging for the Meat Board’s competition, however, was not so uniform. The .judge on the hoof selected six pens and placed them in order of Unfit. Only one of these pens, the sixth, was selected by the freezing judges, and in their opinion the pen •mentioned was worthy of third place when frozen. The other three pens they chose Tor prizes were not mentioned by the livb stock judge. Later, 15 pens wero selected to represent the district, and only-.three of ilie judge’s selections on the hoof were included by the freezing judges as lit to be included in the best 15 pens. In some cases blemishes not apparent when the sheep are alive show up wlion a carcase is dressed for freezing, but even so there appears to be too wide a difference between the judging in the two stages. Here, too, it will be interesting to see how the London judges view the position.