OCR Text |
Show Fitting Stock for Show' " Requires Careful Work Fitting cattle foreshow means the preparation of an animal to appear at Its best. With the meat-producing animals, fattening is the most Important Im-portant part of fitting, but the fat must be firmly and evenly laid oa This herds true with breeding animals as well as market stock. While the breeding animal may never go directly to the block Its value depends on Its Ultimate ability to produce meat stock. It cannot demonstrate this ability In thin . condition. The judge has to make his award on the animal as It appears before him, not on what it might be like If given a fair chance. The failures of new exhibitors are mainly due to poor fitting and showing. show-ing. Most judges prefer to encourage new exhibitors where possible, and generally regret to turn down good possibilities for luck of condition. Getting an animal fat enough Is only part of the problem. U Is a greater problem to get it at Its best at just the right time. After show cattle have reached their prime, their fiesh may get hard or too soft and blub-bery. blub-bery. Sheep may be so highly -fitted ' that they are practically ruined for; breeding purposes. Ideal condition or j "bloom" is reached when the covering ! of fat Is evenly distributed over 'the body and Is springy, but firm and smooth. Rolls or lumps of fat that appear on the ribs or around the tall-head tall-head are objectionable, but are sometimes some-times hard to avoid. Where animals are to be carried In show condition over a fair season lasting five or six months, they are started in comparatively compara-tively light condition, both on account of the warm weather and the danger of overdoing them later. |