Devon County Show
Uploaded October 2008

I love the West Country, so it was a great privilege to be asked to judge at the Devon County Show.

Setting out in the middle of the night, as I could have the one day off work, it had noit occurred to me that the weather would be anything other than sunny. This probably gave the locals quite a titter as I tentatively tiptoed from the rather wet car park to the pig ings, no coat and a hat fit for a mid summer wedding in danger of dissolving at any moment.

Wet toes pointed, the quality of the lovely pigs soon took my mind off the drizzle and the humour and friendliness of the organisers and stewards made the day such a pleasurable experience, well for me at least.

They say there are only two satisfied people in a show ring, the judge and the winner, but I hope that the contestants felt they had been fairly judged. As the quality was so good it became a very difficult decision as we moved through the classes. Once the breed standard tests had been ticked off, personal preference came into play.

The sow class was excellent with both younger and older girls all in excellent condition. There were lovely January's both in the boar and gilt classes. My heart always goes out to the cute pigs but my head had to reign me back as I must have a mind to the interbreed classes. The quality of the July gilts was very good and it was a credit to the few competitors that they were able to turn out such first class entries.

In the finals I had a tough decision, the females had all stolen my hear and it really came down to very minor points of preference to choose my overall champion. This went to Ian Todd's July gilt with Sue Fildes sow a very close reserve.

I enjoyed the day and I hope they did too, as I am sure the rest of the season would be great for them all.

Chris Coe