Due to the unusual situation with the National postal strike in June, some producer's fleeces ended up stuck in the mail and unfortunately could not make it in time for judging. Therefore, some of this year’s classes were allowed to go ahead without the usual number of producers required to run the class. Diane Thompson judged a total of 49 fleeces from both Canada and the US. The fleeces and results were displayed at Fibre Week in Olds, AB on June 28th. Please see the full listing of all entries and winners below following the judges comments:
Remarks from this years judge, Diane Thompson
First off, I would like to thank you for the honour of being able to judge this competition. It was so nice to be able to spend a day up to my elbows in cashmere! I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
The quality of the cashmere I looked at in this show was nothing short of outstanding. I particularly noticed that there were no coarse fleeces. Ten years ago, that would not have been the case. It really looks like our breeders are doing an excellent job on the fineness of their cashmere.
This was a difficult show to judge. Many of the classes had so many fleeces that would be considered top fleeces. The final placings were very close.
All judges come from different backgrounds and bring different biases which will influence what they consider to be "the perfect fleece". The different criteria which make good cashmere: fineness, crimp, consistency, length, and amount will come together in each fleece slightly differently. The final decision on whether this slightly crimpier fleece would place higher than the slightly less crimpy but finer and more consistent fleece may well be different depending on the priorities of the judge assessing it. The more opportunities you can take advantage of to show your fleeces, and have different judges assess them for you, the better you can learn to look for the strengths and weaknesses of the fleece in the context of your own breeding program.
My bias, if you will, is that of a breeder. I tend to look only at the fibre in terms of the breeding animal, and hence am quite lenient on things like scurf and vegetative contamination of the fleece. However, as producers, the cleanliness of your fleeces is important. Excessive guard hair, hay and other bits and pieces in the fleeces make a big difference in the cost of processing your fibre. Many of the fleeces I looked at today were combed much later in the shedding period than they should be to get a clean, pure fleece. Scurf is often a result of nutritional deficiencies, and can be reduced in the herd by increasing the zinc in the minerals. Copper and Vitamin A also have an effect on hair.
Another thing worth note was short length in some of the fleeces, particularly young doe fleeces. This could be genetic, but it could also be management. A young doe is still growing herself. If she is also nursing kids most of the year it may influence the growth of her cashmere. Weaning the kids off the doe by August/September gives her the energy/time to grow her fleece for the winter.
Again, it was a pleasure to be able handle these marvelous fleeces. I hope the comments I've made are of use to the participants.
Kind regards,
Diane Thompson
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