First Place:  4

Entry number:  172

Exhibitor:  2TLivestock

State:  NE

Sheep name/number:  Pistol Pete

Breed:  Suffolk

At first glance I was tempted to start the class with the power ewe lamb, number 2.  However, on closer examination this lamb was too short sided to go to the top of the class.  Therefore, I started the class with 4, a lamb that I would call medium plus in its frame (length of canon bone).  When viewed from the side 4 appears to be lacking in depth of twist and muscle through the lower third, but this changes when viewed from the rear which tells me the lamb is too stretched out in the profile view.  (Back legs are set wide but not square under the corners.)  Number 4 is level in its top and bottom lines with a slight drop off the dock.  (I would appreciate this lamb more with a higher dock setting.)  4 does exhibit balance, however is slightly off in its neck setting (a little below the top of the shoulder).  It does appear to be wide over the rack and loin and long in the hip.  I would assume this lamb is wide in the chest floor because it exhibits a lot of width in the rear legs, good depth of twist with a full inside leg muscle and good muscle expression through the stifle.

Second Place:  2

Entry number:  156

Exhibitor:  Slomom

State:  CA

Sheep name/number:  Sandy/043

Breed:  Cross

In placing lamb 2 second and over 3, I went with the power of 2 over the frame of 3.  Lamb 2 is a medium framed heavily muscled ewe lamb that is basically structurally correct, but just too short sided to go any higher in the class.  You can tell this lamb is wide through the chest floor and brings the width all the way back.  Lamb 3 is straight and level in its top and bottom lines and really exhibits balance.  She appears to be wide and square over the rack and loin and I would assume deep over the loin edge.  She's excellent through the pins, has tremendous depth of twist, and a superior inner and outer leg that carries down toward the hock.  I think 2 easily places over 3 for second.

Third Place:  3

Entry number:  158

3 is a medium framed lamb that is lacking in width and squareness over the rack and loin, drops off in the hip, is shallow in the twist, pinched in the pins, and does not show the inner and outer (stifle) muscle of the top two lambs in the class.  With that said, 3 easily places over 1 for third in the class.

Fourth Place:  1

Entry number:  152

Lamb 1 easily places at the bottom of the class.  This lamb is off in its structure in the following areas: too low in the neck set, uneven top and bottom lines, too steep over the hip, narrow through the pins, extremely shallow in the twist and devoid of muscle through the stifle, too rounded at point of shoulder, and shallow boned and weak in the pasterns.  I would advise the exhibitor of this lamb to  select a lamb more like number 4 for their next project (and even though lamb 4 wins this class it would just be in the middle of the class at a typical competitive Texas show).

For these reasons I placed the class 4, 2, 3, 1 with cuts of 2, 2, and 6.  As a side note...you didn't bomb this class unless you saw lambs 3 and 1 as the top pair.  If you saw 3 and 1 as the top pair I would advise you to sit down and at your convenience and rejudge all 32 classes, paying close attention to the written reasons for each class. 

Good luck,

OG