Prospect/Feeder Lambs
Judge: Sam Funk
Judging Contest Winners:
Under 15: AndrewR, reiner101
15-18: JohnnyR, Storm33, suffolkclover
Over 18: Apes, DLCarter25, dogvet, JbarG, mrsbopeep, PeteM, woolpuller
Official Placing: 4, 2, 3, 1
Cuts: 3, 6, 3
This is a two pair class no matter how you shake it. You need to have 4 and 2 in the top pair and 3 and 1 in the bottom pair. If you succeed in that task, you can make up your own mind how to place them within the pair based on your needs for your show or your personal preferences.
While I do not need all the muscle in the world in a prospect class, I need evidence of muscle and future capacity to fill in with muscle. There is a lamb that in this class shows us very little muscle over the top, a leg that is insufficient, and a narrow base that is not indicative of future muscle growth. The profile appearance would put the lamb higher than the bottom of this class, but the lack of muscle over the top and down the leg and the narrow base from behind places 1 at the bottom of the class.
The next question is to determine how the remainder of the lambs line up in the class. I find adequate structure in two of the lambs, with the other lamb being simply undesirable in its structure. It has a great deal of muscle and therefore I find it more useful than the 1 lamb in the class to hang on the rail as a market animal, but it cannot compete with the two others in this class. The 3 lamb lands in the third hole.
Again, I liked the structure of the 1 lamb more than 3. But that lack of muscle in a market class puts 1 at the bottom of the class. The cut of 3 for this pair is not as large as it could have been if 3 wasn’t simply a very unattractive lamb at the hip. If this were a “market-ready” class we might have a larger cut on the bottom pair. If this were a live animal carcass class, we wouldn’t be anywhere near close.
For those of you who really believe that market lamb classes are carcass classes remember that for the majority we are looking at a beauty contest as well. Miss Mount Olympus body builder is probably not going to win Miss America anytime soon, nor is Miss America going to win a body building competition.
I’m then left with a ewe lamb that is just off the feeding floor and a wether that is at the show. There are good things about each, and we’ll let the reasons below speak for the placing.
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First Place: 4
Entry number: 185 Exhibitor: shepherdmom State: TX Sheep name/number: 731 Breed: Suffolk |
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Starting this easy two pair class with the lamb that is the squarest hipped of the adequate muscled lambs, I preferred the alignment 4, 2, 3, 1 in this class of feeder/prospect lambs. Ideally we would like to see our class winner with more width and power through the lower leg and with a neck that was set coming straight out of the top of the shoulders. However, this is the most fault free, clean fronted lamb that has an acceptable amount of muscle and potential when projected forward as a market lamb. I preferred the squarer hip and elevated chest floor of 4 over 2.
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Second Place: 2
Entry number: 167 Exhibitor: 2TLivestock State: NE Sheep name/number: Bummy Breed: Suffolk/Hampshire |
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I will readily admit that the second place lamb appears smoother over the top and appears that she may handle with more expression through the rack. However, I left her second as she is a deeper fronted animal with a more rounded appearance off the back end that would appear to not have as much potential as our class winner to make that super-profiling, well-muscled animal when putting on more pounds beyond this prospect class. Still in an easy middle pair I placed the ewe lamb over the smokey colored wether for her advantages in structure. She is especially straighter and stronger over her top and leveler than the steepest hipped lamb in the class.
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Third Place: 3
Entry number: 183 |
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While 3 is a clean, long necked lamb with the most mass and width through the leg when viewed from behind, this lamb is readily moved into the bottom pair as he is shown being weaker over his top with a pronounced exaggeration of the hip bone and the steepest rump in the class. But in my bottom pair of problem lambs, I prefer the expressive muscle and width of 3 over 1. I would expect at finished weight the 3 lamb will hang the carcass with the most total pounds of higher priced saleable product.
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Fourth Place: 1
Entry number: 138 |
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The long sided 1 lamb is leveler out the hip and would potentially place above 3 for his advantages in profile, but 1 is the lightest muscled narrowest made lamb in the class that does not show evidence of moving up to acceptable in this regard when fed out longer and I placed him last.
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