Our fleeces did really well yesterday at the wool judging at the Monterey County Fair!
Dale, our awesome Corriedale ram, took first place in the Corriedale class, and won Reserve Champion in the Breed division, competing against the first-place of all the breeds.
In the Romney class, Sky King’s and Blossom’s lovely charcoal-grey fleeces took 2nd and 3rd places.
We practically swept the Market Fleeces division, whch is white fleeces from any breed, classed based on fineness, with class 1 being the finest, and class 5 being the coarsest.
We had fleeces entered in classes 1, 2, 4 and 5, and we won first place in each class, and first and second place in the classes in which we had two fleeces entered. Our Cormo/Corriedale ewe, Mist, daughter of Fog and Perry, won Class I; Snowdrop, daughter of Frieda and Perry (½ Cormo, ¼ Corriedale and ¼ East Friesian) won Class 2; Gladys the Romney won Class 4, with Raydine , daughter of Snagglepiece and Dale ( ½ Corriedale, ½ East Friesian), taking second place.
In Class 5, Heather, a ¾ Romney, ¼ East Friesian, daughter of Hillary and O’Hara, won first, and Raydine’s twin-sister Snazzy took second. Heather went on to win Champion in the Market division, and Mist got Reserve Champion.
In the Colored Fleeces division, we had two fleeces entered in class 5, Lily’s daughter Lulu, who is ¾ Romney, ¼ East Friesian, and Maison and Mitt’s Romney daughter, Casita. Lulu took first, and Casita took second.
The judge, Richard Jacobsen, was full of compliments for our fleeces, praising their softness, lustre, staple-length, character, uniformity of crimp and fiber diameter, and strength, reflecting the health and care of the sheep. I’m so proud of our sheep, and of the team at Barinaga Ranch who take such loving care of them. Their health and happiness shows in their fleeces!
The fleeces will be auctioned off at the Monterey Fair starting at 11:30 am on Sunday, September 4.
