First Place:  4

Entry number: 1511

Exhibitor: Heresheep

State: CA

Sheep name/number: Three Sisters Sheep 896

Breed: Cross

Website: www.threesisterssheep.com

For me 4 wins the class with an advantage over 2 in style, balance, length, and thickness. 4 is the prettiest ewe in the class on the profile. Her long neck is squarely placed. She is clean at the points. She has a long level top line including a long level hip. This medium plus framed ewe shows evidence of muscle starting with the muscular forearm. She is correct on feet and legs, with enough rib roundness and flank fullness to satisfy the requirements for medium plus frame.

From the rear she shows angularity over top of the shoulders, is wide and flat over both the rack and the loin and she gets progressively wider from the first rib to the hip/loin junction. She is wide through the pins, has depth of twist and muscle through the lower third. She should make a tremendous brood ewe.

Second Place:  2

Entry number: 1464

Exhibitor: EmsoffLambs

State: CA

Sheep name/number: Emsoff 505

Breed: Hampshire X

Website: www.emsofflivestockcompany.com

2 follows 4 with similar style and traits, however, she just does not have the overall length as 4. Her neck is squarely placed on top of the shoulder. She shows a little too much roundness at the points. This medium framed ewe lamb is level in her top line and is level with length in her hip. She is full round ribbed with flank fullness. She is correct in feet and leg placement.

From the rear is wide and flat over the rack and loin, square at the pins with depth to her twist. She is a solid prospect.

Third Place:  3

Entry number: 1501

The bottom pair, 3 and 1 are extremely opposite in body type and this placing comes down to personal preference. Although they both have structural problems I prefer the style and length of 3 over the thickness of 1. The long neck looks like it sits on top of the shoulder, however, I cannot really tell. She does have length of top line, however, I would like to see more width and flatness over both the rack and the loin and I would like to square up and raise the dock to level out the hip. This medium plus framed ewe lamb also is a little too fine boned.

From the rear she does show evidence of rib shape and flank fullness. She looks to have adequate width at the pins but is shallow in twist depth. Bred to a structurally correct power ram she should produce sound marketable lambs.

Fourth Place:  1

Entry number: 1460

1 places fourth in the class, however, if you placed her third I can certainly understand. From the profile the medium length neck is placed square on top of the shoulder. She is clean at the points, tucked slightly in chest and looks a little uneven in her top line, and does slope slightly off the hip. In comparing length of cannon bone she is on the low side of medium frame. She does have rib and flank shape.

From the rear she looks to have average width of pins with average twist depth. Bred to a structurally correct power ram she could produce marketable lambs.

Again, I placed the class 4-2-3-1 with cuts of 3-3-1.