I've decided I want to become an official Wool fleece judge.
Would any of you knowledgeable folks know what it takes to become a certified Wool fleece judge in the USA?
--- Dear Barbara,
You can receive training to become a "Certified Wool Classer" but I don't know about becoming a certified Wool Judge ... they aren't the same thing at all. Out in our region, youngsters who have grown up with livestock and major in livestock related fields at the agricultural colleges (like CSU, etc) are the ones who train on the Wool and Livestock Judging teams ... they compete nationally every year at the National western, held in Denver.
In years past, those who did well in these judging competitions and were inclined, went on to judge livestock and wool in our region. These would also be the folks who go on to become Extension Office Specialists.
Many of our regional wool judges are Extension Specialists.
As an aside ...UNFORTUNATELY ... most also showed livestock when younger and have that strange mind set of the current show ring that ONLY the biggest animal can be judged to be the best. None of us will live long enough to see this practice corrected.
Back to wool judging ... on our web site there is the info used in 4-H to train the kids in wool judging. Out here, from the age of 8 years through high school we have wool and livestock judging competitions annually for the kids that want to learn and participate. These would be the ones that go on to compete in college.
I asked permission to attend the wool judging instruction being given by the "wool coach" at CSU many years ago so that I could teach wool judging to the 4-H kids. This was VERY useful.
Find out if the MA Ag school has a wool judging team ... they may let you train with them? it would be a place to start.
joanna
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Joanna Gleason email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.gfwsheep.com
Gleason's Fine Woolies - Corriedales & Australian Bonds - Colorado
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