ROYAL SHOW LAMBS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 977, 21 May 1930, Page 13

ROYAL SHOW LAMBS

REPORT OF LONDON JUDGES The New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board has received a report from its London manager regarding the display and judging on Smithfield Market of the lambs from the Sixth Royal Show held at Invercargill in December. (£F he board otters annually special prizes at the Royal Agricultural Show for fat lambs most suitable for the Dominion’s export trade and the type most desired to keep up New Zealand’s reputation on the London market. The lambs are judged alive on the showground and prizes are awarded by the Meat Board for the best pens.

All the lambs entered in this class are then killed and shipped Home to the board’s London manager, who arranges a special display of them on the Smith field Market. The quality of the carcases is judged by three judges appointed by the Imported Meat Trade Association, Incorporated, and further prizes for the best lot of throe carcases as judged on Smithfield are also awarded by the board. This year the winning pens were as follow: —Judged on showground: William Swale, Limehills, £ls, 1: James Young, Wallacetown, £lO, 2; T. E. Paterson, Winton, £5, 3. Smithfield Market. —William Swale, Limehills, £ls, 1; J. R. Manson, Otautau, £lO, 2; L. S. Gilkison, Castlerock, £ 5, 3.

The board’s London manager reports that "51 lambs entered in this class arrived in excellent order and were displayed on the stall of H. S. Fitter and Sons, Smithfield Market, on March 26. They attracted a good deal of attention. The whole exhibit was purchased by Hammetts, a large firm of London retailers, and they made a good show of them in their shop windows.

The report of the three judges, Messrs. R. F. Garnham, W. T. Johnson and D. C. Messent, is as follows: “Considering the early date of the show and the backwardness of the season, the exhibits in this class were in surprisingly good condition. Apart from a few pens the quality was excellent and, what is more important, although the lambs were full of meat they carried comparatively little waste fat" and were essentially butchers’ meat. There is no question that the Southdown cross or purebred are the most suitable for the London trade.”