SEVENTH WIN OF SOUTHLAND

Southland Times, Issue 23774, 23 March 1939, Page 5

SEVENTH WIN OF SOUTHLAND

District Fat Lamb Competition

EASTERN SOUTHLAND SECOND

SHIELD HELD IN PROVINCE SINCE INCEPTION

Southland again has established its superiority in the fat lamb industry of the South Island by winning the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board’s fat lamb competition for the 1938-39 season. Advice of the result of the competition was received in Invercargill yesterday. The placings were:—

Southland 1 Eastern Southland , 2 Central Otago 3 The awards for the individual pens competition were:—

Mid-Canterbury (Pen £6) 1 Southland (Pen 87) 2 South Otago (Pen 17) 3

Pen 87 (second prize) was the entry of Mr H. A. Robertson (Otautau), whose lambs were placed third in the judging "bn the hooks at the Ocean Beach Freezing Company’s works in December.

Since the competition was inaugurated eight years ago, the Meat Producers’ Challenge Shield has been held in Southland. Two years ago it was won by Eastern Southland. The southern and western districts of Southland, whose headquarters are at Invercargill, have won the shield seven times in eight years. A Press Association cablegram received from London yesterday stated that the judges were highly pleased with the quality of the lambs and congratulated the High Commissioner for New Zealand (Mr W. J. Jordan) on the fine display. 1 A cablegram announcing the result was received yesterday by the Southland Frozen Meat Co., Ltd., from Macpherson, Train and Co., Ltd., London. They added that the exhibits were of excellent quality and offered congratulations to all concerned. COMMENT OF JUDGE It is interesting to recall the remarks and comment of Mr W. Falconer, one of the judges and selectors of the lambs for competition, at the completion of file judging at the Ocean Beach works in December.

“These lambs are every bit as good as those in the Southland exhibit which won in London last year,” said Mr Falconer. “There was only one bad pen in the total entry of 107 pens and the only fault in some of the pens was that the lambs were bruised as if they had been hit with a stick. The quality throughout was very good, all the lambs showing a lot of the good, meaty carcass of the Do’wn-cross breeding. All were the product of mating the Southdown ram with open-woolled ewes. The winning pen on the hooks was wonderfully good, although the lambs may be a little over-prime for the London market and may be beaten at Smithfield by the second and third prize pens. “If Southland is beaten in this competition, the winners will have to be remarkably good,” concluded Mr Falconer. “After we had taken out the best 15 pens we could have gone through and selected another 15 pens almost equally as good.” Mr D. Windle, of Gore, who judged the lambs on the hoof, said they made a beautiful collection. He had been agreeably surprised at the big entry and he was satisfied that the standard was higher than it was two years ago, although perhaps not so good as last year, which was a particularly good fattening season. Practically all the lambs had been Romney MarshSouthdown cross, but an attractive pen of Border Leicester-Southdown cross lambs had been among those placed. The selection of the winning pen had not caused much difficulty, the lambs being nicely matched and of good length, with great quality throughout. MANY ENTRIES For the Southland exhibit 107 entries, compared with 130 the year before, were received. The results of the judging were as follows:— ON THE HOOF Sir William Hunt (Broughton Bush) 1 Alan Henderson (Centre Bush) 2 J. E. McKenzie (Otahuti) 3 lan C. Mcllwrick (Otapiri) 4 Lindsay Brothers (Drummond) 5 ON THE HOOKS N. M. Burnett (Scotts Gap), 311 b, 321 b, 331 b 1 Sir William Hunt (Broughton Bush), 331 b, 341 b, 361 b 2 H. A. Robertson (Otautau), 321 b, 331 b, 361 b 3 Other pens included in the district exhibit were:—George Stevenson (Dacre), J. F. Hamilton (Winton), N. A. Guise (Fairfax), J. and C. McCrostie (Spar Bush), Estate J. S. Grieve (Waianiwa), George Gray (Wallacetown), Bailey Brothers (Heddon Bush), Alan Henderson (Centre Bush), J. W. Murphy (South Hillend), lan C. Mcllwrick (Otapiri), Southland Frozen Meat Co., Ltd., and Duncan Drain (Oporo). For the Eastern Southland exhibit there were 89 entries, compared with 114 the year before. The results of the judging were as follows:— ON THE HOOF P. Smith (Heriot) 1 A. Clelland (Black Hills) 2 W. C. Butler (Riversdale) 3 ON THE HOOKS R. Muir (Brydone), 341 b, 331 b, 321 b 1 J. Bruce (Waipounamu), 321 b, 331 b, 331 b 2 A. D. Dickie (Croydon Siding), 351 b, 341 b, 361 b 3 Other pens included in the district exhibit were: Logan Brothers (Otama), H. Hazlett (Lintley), P. Finlayson (Crookston), J. Rae (Crookston), A. Jamieson (Lintley), G. W. McKenzie (Croydon Siding), A. D. Mcßain (Otama), R. Miller (Waipounamu), J. Pullar and Sons (Crookston), P. Smith (Heriot), G. and R. Wright (Waipounamu), W. C. Butler (Riversdale). LAST YEAR’S AWARDS The placings last year were:— Southland 1 Eastern Southland 2 South Canterbury 3 Nelson 4 The prize for the best pen was awarded to Mr James Grant (Bayswater).