Farm Walk and Judging Day

A fantastic day at Blackhill-you'd put your shirt on it (but not the Chairman's!)

More than 80 people turned up at the breed's judging event and Jim Dufosee's open day.All the hard work that had clearly been done by Jim,Jacqui,family and staff was rewarded by members travelling huge distances to see last year's Champion flock.Breeders from Scotland,Wales,N.Ireland and England all took part in the mornings judging event.Several groups of ewes and rams of all ages had been pre-judged by Jim and Francis Fooks.There then followed a judging display by Francis,placing 5 ram lambs in order whilst being stood as they would be in a show enviroment.Everyone found this very useful because Francis also discussed judging etiquette as he went along,with his reasons for placing the sheep in the line up.

After a very tasty lunch of roast lamb(Blackhill lamb) we went on a farm walk to see the rest of the flock.We saw ewes with some very strong Jan born lambs at foot,the main Autumn lambing flock and this year's replacements.A heavy shower only delayed proceeedings for a few minutes whilst this year's ewe lambs were driven back to the buildings for inspection.

We would all like to thank Jim,Jacqui and everyone who helped make the day the great success it was and hope that it encourages a few more of you to become judges.