STOCK JUDGING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 50, 27 January 1938, Page 13

STOCK JUDGING

VALUE OF COMPETITIONS. TRAINING FOR JUDGES. Comment upon the value of stock I'edging1 'edging competitions was made by Mr j. J. Wild, principal of the Feilding Agricultural High School, and president of the Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand, during a brief address at the function held in Palmerston North yesterday afternoon to farewell the Young Farmers’ Clubs’ team selected to represent New Zealand in the stock judging contests at the Sydney Royal Show. "I think the fact that stock-judging competitions were inaugurated at the last Royal Show is one of the best things that ever happened to the Royal Agricultural Society,” stated Mr Wild, “and I hope that the years will prove that it was the best thing, too, that ever hapjiened to the Young Farmers’ Clubs.” The value of the competitions, Mr Wild said, was of joint concern to the Young Farmers’ Club, the A. and P. Associations, and the Royal Agricultural Society, and they had several objectives. The first was _to give breeders an opportunity to bring a certain type before the public; the second was to give the general public and farmers an opportunity to see the various types produced, and the third was the very responsible job of the judge in interpreting types to breeders, farmers, and the public generally by his judging and concurrent remarks.

Young farmers’ interest in the competitions lay in the fact that they meant maintaining the supply of •good trained judges, which was very badly needed, as A. and P. Association officials would testify. There were plenty of judges, but the difficulty was, in ensuring a supply of trained young men coming on. Continuing. Mr Wild stated that there was a challenge to Young Farmers’ Clubs and A. and P. Associations, and it implied the old adage, “Handsome is as handsome does.” Shows abroad were showing a tendency more and more, and we less and less, to give importance to what an animal did, rather than what an animal looked like. Quoting a farmer in America who had referred to a field of corn there as a “flapper crop.” Mr AVild stated that by this he had meant it “looked kind of good, but had not got much on it.” It was not merely what an animal looked like that counted, but when it was exhibited a record should be given of its production._ Concluding, Mr Wild said the general impression, and one in which he shared, during the big _ international stock judging competition at the Royal Show In England, was that personal names or towns counted for nothing, and at the Sydney Show the main thing ■which would be of interest w r as that the stock-judging team represented New Zealand.