Sunday, September 18, 2016

Our Local County Fair and Goat Judging

As long as I can remember, I went to the county fair and looked at what entries are for the year, I have always, always, cruised the animal pens and the small animals whether I had any or not.  I have never entered anything.  This year, I've changed my mind after my experience watching the goat judging and next year I'm going to enter my Nigerians.
I made a special trip to see the regular people category:  It said Goats/Pack Goats.  Okay, I wanted to see the pack goat category entries.  I go and I take along some crocheting to wait for my part to start.  I spoke to a girl on the bleachers and mentioned I was there for the goat judging.  She left, I sat and watched the 4H dog judging, dog?  I thought 4H as for farm animals not dogs?  Anyway, they were running over their time and the girl came back to tell me that the goat judging wasn't in the arena, it was behind the small animal building.  So, off to search I went, it was not exactly behind the building it was in the middle of the stalls.  I'm pretty sure the judge didn't know much at all about goats.
Boer category:  it had the most goats, they had does, wethers, and a couple of bucks.  The youngest kid was probably 6-7 and his doe was from one of the big goat breeders here of boer.  As he walked out with his doe, I realized she had double tits, now shouldn't that have disqualified her right off?  This is a breeder, and they were showing a goat that shouldn't be bred.  She won her category and the Grand Champion category.
Nubian: There were two goats both from our local goat dairy.  They both won the highest ribbons but of course, they were the only two in the category. (the judge said their legs were too long and thin, he knew nothing about them, they all have long thin legs!)
Nigerian Dwarf:  The family in this category had four goats.  I have spoken to her before when I was looking for a buck to breed Dahlia with.  Never had her goats tested for anything.  Her oldest doe was 8 years old, very small, bow legged and thin except for her belly.  The 2 year old from this mama was thin and bony.  They also had two bucks, one of which they had just bought in Phoenix who did come from a clean herd.  They won the top two ribbons because they had no competition. 
When I said, wow, she's small compared to mine, she informed me that they were only supposed to be 19" tall.  Wow, even I know they range from 19" up to 22-1/2" tall and bucks/wethers up to 23-1/2" tall.  I'm really glad mine aren't as small as hers or they would never be able to carry a pack with any weight at all!  I have decided that next year I will enter my two goats.  Give that lady a run for her money and show her what well fed goats look like!

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