Judging Down Under
Uploaded September 2004

As some of you already know, last October I was privileged to be invited to judge pigs in Australia. The event in question was the Bendigo show. Bendigo is around two hours drive North of Melbourne and was originally a gold mining town, and in fact there is still gold to be found in the locality. This show is unique in Victoria, as it is the only show in the State which offers classes for every breed of pig. And so it was that Joyce, (who came along to carry my bags and keep me out of mischief) arrived at Melbourne Airport at 7pm on Wednesday 22nd Oct, and I were met by Anthony Duffy, who accommodated us in his very comfortable house for our first night. He is president of the Victoria Pig Breeders Assn. and farms a 45 acre organic farm with Saddleback pigs and Dorset Down sheep, though both he and his wife work in the pharmaceutical industry. The weather that first night was dry but colder than we expected, only 10°c - it was warmer in Manchester!

The following morning, after a walk round Anthony's farm, he delivered us to our motel in Bendigo ready for judging on the Friday. Friday dawned bright and sunny, the Holstein judge gave us a lift to the showground, where we met another Joyce, the head pig steward other officials and also Chrissie Ross, who was responsible for my invitation for this judging appointment. On this first day judging started at 2:00pm with Duroc, Hampshire, Landrace, Large White and Trade (commercial) pigs. As these classes were not particularly strong in numbers, though not lacking in quality, it was quite an easy afternoon's work. As a matter of interest, I had asked Chrissie about the judges dress in Australia, after my experience in New Zealand of two years previously, where judges wear a white coat, bowler and suit definitely out. However they were all emphatic that I should judge in full regalia, as Chrissie felt, that as an English judge it was appropriate to dress accordingly and would be good for publicity! "Good on em" to let an old pomme persuade them to raise their standards!

The judging ring was also somewhat different, it was under cover, though open at the sides and very small by our standards, no more than 6yards square, but it did have individual holding pens down the side. Judging boars entailed bringing them out of the holding pens individually for inspection and then remembering the pigs in order to place them. To have two males in a ring that size would have been courting disaster. There is a good grass area by the pig shed where the pig people would like to have an outside ring but the show council are not in favour, they claim the pigs would rootle the turf. Its not just in the UK that some shows treat pigs as poor relations! and Bendigo is considered a good show for pigs in Oz.

Saturday and another fine day with what we would class as traditional breeds to be judged. I had a wonderful class of Berkshires, (at this years show Berkshires were the featured breed). There was a very good sow belonging to a young lady called Lee Brown, which was my breed and eventually Show Champion. This pig had been bred by Colin and Joy Lyner (think I've spelt the name right) from South Australia, who were the breeders of a couple of the Australian boars imported into the UK in the 1970s and also more recent importations. I felt very honoured that he and his wife had come all the way from S. Australia to meet a UK judge, though I secretly believe he came to see I didn't make a pigs ear (forgive the pun) of it!

There was also a chap with a cracking BK senior boar plus good classes of younger pigs, a very good turnout of BKs. Of the other breeds, there was a Tamworth sow, possibly the best I've ever seen, and also some very good young Saddlebacks, with confirmation that would put some Hampshires to shame. The day was rounded off with a pig breeders' dinner in a restaurant in Bendigo.

The following day Chrissie picked us up in her truck to give us a lift into Melbourne prior to our trip up to Queensland. She had also been landed with the job of transporting a friends Tamworth sow. Her trailer was "a little delicate", we had to go out and find an airline to blow up a flat tyre before setting off. It is a facet of Australian character not to worry too much over trivialities, ("she'll be right"). So off we set on the two hour drive to Melbourne. We duly arrived at our motel after travelling down a very busy four lane highway and were unloading our gear when Chrissies son suddenly said "look!", a wheel was missing off one side of the trailer. However they set off again, after all we hadn't missed the wheel when it fell off, but they did have to have the assistance of another trailer to complete the journey back to their farm, as the old chassis had started to bend!

We joined Chrissie on her farm in the Yarra Valley, a fortnight after the show, as she was holding an open "rare breeds" weekend. This involved various demonstrations on many different aspects of "small farm" livestock, various craft stands and also a sausage competition which I was railroaded in to judging. A first for me, but then a sausage is as good as it tastes and I was furnished with an information sheet of the fine points of a good sausage, so I could give a bit of "expert" spiel on the subject. Meanwhile Joyce was kept very busy washing organic salad leaves to go with the sausages and BBQ'd pig for the many visitors. A very good weekend with over 700 punters over the two days.

This trip was a great experience for both Joyce and myself. We were made very welcome wherever we were, Australia is a fascinating country and there's an awful lot of it.

W. John Mason, Chairman