By Kyle McCleary
York Fair is always a fun fair to be at no matter how you do in the show ring. Breeding sheep are there the first weekend of the fair and are released on Monday. The actual show is not until Sunday around 3 so I have two days to get all my sheep ready for the fair. This year I had two yearling rams as well as a ram lamb and ewe lamb.
At York I am the only BFL breeder so I am in the “Other wool breeds” class. This year my only competition was a Karakul breeder. Usually there are a few other breeds but this year they were unable to come.
Placing depends on the judge; this year the judge was not a fan of BFL’s mainly because she kept calling them borders but I learned long ago to only care about where BFL sheep are placed. At the end of the week my yearlings were 1st and 2nd in their class and also got Reserve champion. Sadly my other two lambs came up 3rd.
I had a great week no matter what place I came in. I know my sheep are nice sheep and other people know it too. I just have to wait till the knowledge of the breed spreads and more people buy BFLs so we can start having our own classes in shows. I already know of 3 new breeders this year that live in Southern PA so everyone should keep pushing the breed.
