EXACT JUDGING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20032, 2 September 1939, Page 11

EXACT JUDGING

LAMB COMPETITIONS

GISBORNE INITIATIVE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FIRST TIME IN DOMINION The Poverty Bay A. and P. Association is taking the initiative in a very Important matter by including a class at its next Show for lambs to bo judged on the pointing and measurement system evolved by Dr. Hammond, a well known English expert in the matter. The system of pointing and measurement will obviate much of the human element in the present methods adopted throughout the Dominion and which do not always conform with the views of London experts. By sponsoring a competition to be decided by the exact method of measurement, a lead may be given to the more general adoption of the new scheme.

Mr. J. C. Graham, who prepared the present district export fat lamb competition conducted by the New Zealand Meat Board, has been 'active in putting forward the claims of the measurement system for fat lamb judging.

Mr. Graham has been in touch with Dr. C. P. McMeekan, of Massey College, who studied under Dr. Hammond in England, and has secured Dr. McMeekan’s promise .of co-opera-tion at judging time. Dr. McMeekan has taken a particular interest in the measurement system of judging, and has demonstrated it on several occasions since his return from England. Australian Adoption Dr. McMeekan has advised Mr. Graham that the final pointing and measurement system has been completed at Cambridge, and was being published by the Australian Meat Board for use in the Commonwealth. Their representatives in London had been working with Dr. Hammond in the matter. Dr. McMeekan agreed to forward the details necessary for .the preparation of the Poverty Bay score cards.

As an education to the producers, the competition should be extremely valuable, and should obviate more expansive methods of demonstrating what the London market requires most. t A suggestion was made in Hawke s Bay recently that winning carcases in London, should be returned to New Zealand and exhibited to farmers to sjiow them the ideal and for the purpose of comparison with other carcases of the wrong type. While that should be an excellent method, the Gisborne proposal of judging by the measurement system and then exhibiting the carcases should be of equal value at far less cost. Arrangements are being made to have the Poverty Bay Show class killed a.t the Kaiti freezing works on the day of exhibition, and following- the judging by measurement a,nd pointing the carcases will be -exhibited either in -town or at the ■Show on the following day.

! ' Exhibiting Carcases Some difficulty might be experienced in securing a transparent refrigerated show case, and at present investigations are being made with a view to some suitable solution of the problem. A proposal has been made that the Show committee should approach one of the firms marketing refrigerating appliances for tire purpose of having some suitable container made for the occasion. It will not be possible to exhibit all the carcases in a refrigerated chamber at the Show, but it is suggested that the prize-winners will be exhibited there, along with an undesirable specimen so that comparisons can be made by the farmers. Under the exact method of measurement, the London ideal can be ascertained with certainty, for the system has been worked out after many years of observation and experiment, so that the judges will b e able to say with certainty which of the carcases will be most acceptable to the London trade, a point which was sometimes in doubt, when judged only by appearance. So far as is known, no other A. and P. Association in New Zealand has 'adopted the measurement system of judging, and the Poverty Bay A. and P. Association is to be commended for its initiative.