First Place:  4

Entry number: 489

Exhibitor: TheDad1

State: MN

Sheep name/number: 93012

Breed: Crossbred

Website: my.pclink.com/~ddrewry/index.htm

4 best combines balance, eye appeal, and muscularity.  Ideally, the ewe lamb could be tighter hided and smoother pelted.  Still she is the tallest fronted, smoothest shouldered of the class, that in comparison to 1 ties her neck more into the top of her shoulder, is more open in her forerib, and leveler and squarer  out of her dock.  In addition she is fuller and more upstanding in her rack, and has more flare and fullness to the lower third of her leg.  As a bonus,  I read her to be a later maturing more growth oriented prospect that should better be able to maintain her trimness to heavier weights than 1.

Second Place:  1

Entry number: 437

Exhibitor: dustydivider

State: CA

Sheep name/number: Pickles

Breed: Hampshire X

I’ll be the first to admit that 1 is wider and flatter over his loin and has more width through the center of his leg,  unfortunately, he is off in his dock,  pinches behind his blades and through his forerib, and funnels to his lower leg.  With these faults aside, his added width and thickness allows him to easily move ahead of 2 in the middle pair.  He is simply a wider based, stouter constructed, heavier muscled wether.  He too is shallower chested, nicer profiling and has more of a wedge shape when viewed from the side and rear alike.  Most importantly, it is the difference in overall quality that separates him from the bottom pair.

Third Place:  2

Entry number: 485

Sure, 2 is leveler out of his dock, but this his where his advantages end as he is extremely  deep chested, which throws him out of balance.  In a very close bottom pair, I elect to use his added fullness and square shape to his rack, loin and upper dock to place him over 3.  Due to this added thickness down his topline he should rail a more shapely carcass with a higher percentage cutout of rack and loin.

Fourth Place:  3

Entry number: 488

The unshorn lamb is deeper twisted and ties his lower leg in more near his hock.  However when peeled off, he is going to be the shortest necked bold shouldered lamb in class that is round in his topshape, poorest in his condition, rough and narrow at his hip loin juncture and taper excessively from hooks to pins.

Judgers, a good class to note the quality differences that are tied to structure in this class.  If you took the 6 point cut in the middle, please study the front ends on 2 and 3 and how they compare to the top two.  Muscle tone and condition can be improved in the right program on the top two and a tail-job helps 1 considerably, however the skeletal makeup of the bottom two only gets worse with maturity.

4, 1, 2, 3  with cuts of 4, 6, 2.