Judging Berkshires at the Devon County Show
Uploaded July 2009

I was thrilled to have been asked to judge the Berkshires at Devon County Show 2009. Viki and Mike had kindly offered to put us up for the night, so we set off just after lunch on the Wednesday. Mike had been really poorly but he still made us feel very welcome and cooked us a fabulous diner , mustn't forget to mention that his bread and butter pudding is to die for. So thanks for a great night.

After a great breakfast we set off to the show , me in a flap as we got stuck in traffic, although we did m the end arrive in plenty of time.

The sow class only two forward and I liked both sows but gave it to Sue Files sow which on the day just had the edge on the other sow.Not many boars forward but again Sue Fildes had a boar I thought was fabulous

The July's and September classes had more pigs in but some of them were disappointing with quite a few dummy teats.

I really enjoyed the January class, although it seemed to take me forever. From the start one little gilt stood out for me, being shown by Mr Case, and second prize went to another lovely gilt which turned out to be the litter sister.

My female champion went to Sue's sow with reserve going to the January gilt although I did really like the September gilt.

Male champion went to Sue's boar and he was my overall Breed Champion.

We had a great day Devon is such a lovely show many thanks for the invite to judge and also to Viki and Mike for putting us up for the night.

Tracey Bretherton