Many Cotswold Sheep Society members are keen to show their sheep – though we would love to see more doing so. There are very good reasons for encouraging members to show their sheep, particularly when you have a rare breed, which of course, Cotswolds are.
Often our flocks are small and isolated from one another, indeed having just twenty breeding ewes counts as a ‘large flock’ in the Cotswold sheep world! This means it is hard to assess how your flock is doing. When you take your best sheep to your first show you may of course, find yourself at the top of the line, and then you can congratulate yourself on doing an excellent job.
Often however, you can find yourself at the bottom of the line and realise that your sheep are not perhaps as well grown, or as white, or have as good wool as others in the line. That is valuable information to have – maybe the answer will be a new ram, in which case you can set about looking for a ram that will bring the missing qualities to your flock.
It might be that there is nothing wrong with your sheep, except for a lack of correct preparation – and again there is many a wise word to be had around the ring regarding the best feeding regime or handling techniques.
The important thing is to be brave and enter your sheep into a show – if you don’t have one near enough with Cotswold classes, then enter the Longwool classes at your local show.
