[Jacob-list] card grading

[Betty Berlenbach]

That's why, David, we use the forms developed: at the very least it gives some guidance to the judges.  For example, on the one for Coopworths, they ask the child questions about how many lambs the animal has produced, how much growth it has shown, what its weight is, because Coopworth can't be registered unless...blah,blah,blah...Coopworths also aren't generally ALLOWED in the show ring by the Coopworth assoc.  You have to get special permission to show them, for exactly the reasons you suggest: fear of losing those less tangible features of the breed not readily discernible or accessible in a show ring.  Training judges is a good thing.  I believe that training for card grading has gone on in Region 2 and other regional meetings of JSBA.  I think the more you educate judges to judge an animal in terms of its own breed standard, the greater the education is for the entire show: children, parents, spectators, judges, everyone.  Also, you shift people's understanding of what makes a "good" fleece from "the finest possible" to the "most appropriate for the project".  Fine isn't always best, just as, contrary to what is often attributed to a Texan mindset, big isn't always best.
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