Livestock at Burwarton

Alpine (?)
Let's begin of with these crazy creatures. They're called alpacas although I think the plural should probably be 'alpaca'. I don't have any evidence for that, I just think it sounds better.
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Being part-goat, part-llama, part-camel, part-pantomime-donkey, they produce good wool apparently; I'm not sure about their meat. Only two come to the show each year and they each get a rosette just for turning up. I think they deserve it for going through life, seemingly, as the butt of a divine joke.
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Ovine
Next we have the sheep. I'd like to say that I went for the impressionist effect with this photo, in honour of Monet (was he an impressionist? No one dare say Rory Bremner - especially you Caroline!) Unfortunately, the picture looks like this because the auto-focus on my camera has become a little unpredictable.
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Anyway, if the picture were clearer you would see sheep in small pens in which children are able to pet them. Numerous breeds are represented here and each breed has a champion which is thought to be the best specimen of its type on the day. (Rumour has it that the Welsh rate sheep on the strokability scale)
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In a bizarre move, this year they put a refrigerated container with windows in it just outside the livestock area. Inside visitors could see sheep's carcases lined-up. So, after petting the cute little lambs, the children could see what they look like when they're dead. A bit of an own-goal I thought. After this, I got a roast lamb bap with mint sauce from one of the catering vans, it was lovely.
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Bovine

My Pastor and his wife (potentially reading) although not from the area have taken up the tradition of visiting the show each year, and when they arrive the first thing they do is go and look at the cows. My pastor's wife has a special fondness for cows for some reason - I wouldn't like to suggest a reason for this.

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Pictured here is a Hereford Bull, isn't he a handsome fellow. The city of Hereford is about 35 miles from the village of Burwarton so this is regarded as one of the local breeds. It's difficult to get a sense of the size of these things from pictures like this. In the flesh they're impressive beasts and one is glad of the ring through the nose that prevents them from running amok and trampling everything in sight. As it is, one of these nearly trampled me when it was led into the judging ring by one of my dad's friends - I hope it wasn't a deliberate attempt on my life!

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The angular Holsteins are among the most selfless of beasts. Not only do they provide milk for us to drink and meat for us to eat but also, they carry maps on their backs for lost travellers. Some of the local herders have embarked on a program of producing a map of the world by selective breeding. On this cow you can see a detail form the island of St. Lucia.

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Forget Jean Claude Van Damme, the Belgian Blue is the real Muscles from Brussels. Look at the definition around his shoulders, it's scary! This thing looks like it could pull a train with big fat McAvoy on board. He has large testicles too.

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And finally... I have no idea of the breed of this one but I wanted a picture of a handler with his animal and this chap was good enough to stand and pose for me. He might have been less willing to pose, however, had he known why I wanted this particular picture.

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The sole purpose of this picture was so that I could attach the following caption:

Hello ladies, would you like to stroke my calves?

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So, that's all from the show, don't forget to check out Big Dave's cow page in the links.

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Now, I have to go and play table tennis. I'll be back soon as this weekend has been a little eventful for one reason or another but first I'll need to borrow R & J's power supply again to access more pictures from my computer.