2012 Annual Show

Absolutely Amazing!!

 They came from all over the country, the west, the east, the north and the south and they all congregated together under one roof attending what was the friendliest and most courteous crowd of professional people that I have ever been associated with. Old friends reacquainted and a myriad of new friends made. In fact I have never seen so many handshakes, hugs, kisses and 'goodaye mate' was definitely the words of the day. It's as if the MGPS is a great big family and everyone just really wants to be a part of it. No whinging, no whining, no judge bashing and no-one running off at the mouth, in fact everyone who was there really wanted to be a part of it and it was very evident in the atmosphere... Simply the best poultry show I have ever been to!!

 Ted Brown and his band of merry workers have to be congratulated for their efforts and I can assure you that nothing was left to chance. When you arrived there was free coffee and hot soup to warm the tummy and the biggest, friendliest greeting imaginable.... "Welcome" was the Wimmera Poultry Club's chosen word and trust me it was the attitude of all the club members who attended.

A few words from our President (Big Al)

From all reports I have heard from Horsham, it was a great success; 580 odd birds I'm told and not too many bad ones in them. The judges must have had a tough time sorting through them. Ted Brown and his band of helpers did a magnificent job. To all the sponsors who donated, we must say a big THANK YOU! Without these people we wouldn't have shows of this calibre.

To Kath McKenna, please accept my congratulations on your WIN. You are a great supporter of Modern Game and also the Modern Game Promotional Society, so keep up the good work and I'll see you around next year. Also, to all the people who travelled long distances to attend Horsham, Thank you. To my good mate and breeding partner Wayne, thankyou mate for carrying the flag for the Al-N-Wayne syndicate. I'll be there next year.

Show Report by Kevin Nordstrom

 Firstly, I would like to thank the Wimmera Poultry Club and the MGPS for inviting me to judge at their annual show held at Horsham on the 14th July 2012. For me it was truly an honour to adjudicate at such a prestigious event and one that I will certainly place right up there with the best I have judged to date.

 I have never judged anywhere at a show before that had so many top quality fowl in the one shed, by this I mean that out of the 580 odd birds exhibited I feel that there may have been only a handful of birds that could not have won a major prize at other shows. The quality was extremely consistent throughout the colours which was pleasing to see... even the creel bantams, 42 of them in all, were a good even lot.

The large fowl were well represented by some good fowls with the winning large being a black red hen that showed good colour and presented well. The reserve large modern was a blue red hen with a lovely shaped body but just a little harsh in colour. My only real criticism of the large that were put in front of me was that they lacked a little bit in the length of thigh and neck, but in saying that I enjoyed judging them and I can see the improvements that have already been made with this variety.

I also judged some of the bantams and I found them as follows: The first class I looked at were the ginger reds and they were a very good even lot of birds with my winning bird being a cockerel. This little bird showed good reach, plenty of thigh length and his overall type was quite pleasing. The self coloured whites were also a pleasure to judge as I have never seen a lot of these over in the West and I must say it was good to finally get my hands on a few. The white cockerel was my best self coloured bantam because he handled well, he was quite fit and was a good representation of the breed standard.

The next class I judged was the creels and I have to say it was worth the trip all the way over from WA to see and judge them. i have never seen this many creels in any breed before let alone Modern Game. My winning creel was a pullet and I found her to be an excellent specimen, good colour, good type, a lovely neat fowl that handled exceptionally well. The cockerel was my reserve with lovely reach but just not quite up to the colour of the female, nonetheless still a very nice little bantam. I did judge the spangle class and I can see the work that is going into this colour and also the challenges ahead. All I can say is to keep making progress with this colour as they are a beautiful pattern.

The only other thing I would like to add to this report is that I feel compassion for the people who could not make this show... for whatever reasons... as I can honestly say that you have missed what was truly a fantastic weekend and you should try not to miss another one!

Show report by Alf Woods

 What a beautiful day. What a beautiful show. What a beautiful shed of Moderns. What a beautiful body of Modern fanciers. What a beautiful bunch of ladies in the kitchen. What a beautiful show organised and run by the Wimmera Poultry Society. What a beautiful sponsorship by the MGPS. What a beautiful job Ted and his band of workers performed, and don't let us forget the stewards. What a beautiful job the judges had.

Now to the show. I'm afaid I have mentioned the best. What could be better than what I have mentioned above. The three judges were unanimous in their praise of the quality of entries, the exhibitors and the quality of the weekend. I was fortunate to have the black reds as my first section to judge, there were over 130 entries, normally there is only a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize awarded so I went down to 6th place to show my appreciation of the work the exhibitors went to in presenting so many excellent Moderns for me to judge.

 The cock birds were mostly of good type and style with the winner having a flat back and good shoulder position and tapered well to the tail. The cockerls, great numbers, the place getters showed good modern type well cut up around the rear end and closely held tails. I noted a number of cockerels had great reach and length where required however they were a little large and the legs were a little too thick and a little on the dark side of green. I would imagine the breeder of these had in mind a cross to produce something good in another year. I interpret willow to be green with a yellow tinge under the scales to the deepest of green.

I have not mentioned heads. I have noticed that when a bird has it's comb removed it often leaves a dent in the top of the head, this fault has now almost been eliminated in our Moderns and we now have a lovely straight line from the top of the head to the beak.

The partridge females, to me the highlight of the show, just so many good ones I had difficulty in separating the first four pullets as they were all class and any one of them were worthy of best in show and the winning pullet had the lot, a beautiful body, beautiful condition and peaked on the day. The second and third pullets were unlucky they met a great pullet who showed herself to almost perfection. The owner was a lovely lady who enjoyed her day and even had a tear in her eyes. The hen class was almost as good as the pullets, many with great type, good length of neck, thighs, legs and feet. I would ask you to look up past issues of your Modern Game magazines and read what I have written on "The Long and the Short" many of the females had it in abundance.

The next section I moved to was the brown reds and birchens. Here I found a mixed lot that need a lot of attention to body shape, carriage, action, training and colour, and a few other areas to reach the perfection of the more popular colours and push them along. I have been informed by several top breeders that this is going to happen as we speak. I then moved to the wheatens. I found the hens were of reasonable type but the colour in many of them was not as good or clear as is desired, however there was plenty of the right kind. In regards to colour: The Australian Poultry Standard quotes under the glossary of terms, the call is for the colour of ripe wheat. Our problem is which strain of Wheat?, there is a variety of colours to choose from. However today in all varieties of Game Fowl the paler shade is the one preferred. Also the judge has to keep in mind that colour is allocated 20 points in the standard so the judge must consider the total colour of the bird.

 The next class were wheaten pullets. Here I found three birds which were outstanding and I suspect were all sisters. I consider them to be typical of the Modern we should aim for in our breeding programs. The body's so hard and tapered where required, giving that required defined outline which the standard describes as shaped like a flat iron, however there are many shapes of a flat iron so we must go back to the standard for the correct shape.

If the reader refers back to an article I wrote for the MGPS there is a sketch by Roy Gertz, or refer to the A.P.S page 85 to the black and white sketch. These three had good shoulder structure with a short back and well set whipped tail, the neck and legs fine and of the desired length. The body colour was of a pale shade of ivory, the wing bays a darker shade of ripe wheat (???), the breast and neck as per the standard.

 The best in show came down to the ginger male, a black red female and a pile female. The ginger male had beautiful colour and shape with plenty of reach, but lacked pen training and so missed out as a serious contender for best in show. So the decision came back to the pile and patridge females. The partridge was almost a perfect colour while the pile did not have a pure white colour as called for in the A.P.S.

So we three judges had to determine between the pile and the partridge for the grand champion. The pile was in laying condition and was not as hard in body condition as the partridge thus the partridge took the title.

I would like to pass another comment, several years ago I wrote an article concerning spurs on the Modern Game and how the 1st edition of the A.P.S had set in concrete the requirement that all adult males must have spurs so it is now pleasing that this is regarded as a normal requirement on our Moderns.

 I would like, if I may, pass one other comment. I am more noticing that many of our Modern females still have their lobes intact. Under serious defects (refer A.P.S 2nd edition page 203) Positive Enamel White refers to permanent white in the face or earlobes where red is required. The term is not intended to include paleness due to poor condition or very cold weather. I believe breeders if they apply their talents should be able to breed our Moderns with lovely red lobes.

Show report by Barry Simpkins

 Wow, where do I start... from the moment Alf picked me up from the airport in Melbourne on Friday to when he delivered me back there on Monday, it was one of the most memorable shows I have ever had the privilege to Judge. I mean where else can you get so many exquisite birds, wonderful people and well behaved, friendly and supportive exhibitors in the one shed!! Never, ever have I participated in such a professionally organised, well supported and exhibitor friendly event before and I can't wait to participate, in some shape or form, at the next event in South Australia.

It was an absolute pleasure to participate in an event that carries such prestige and to judge such an even, lovely array of Modern Game bantams was a pleasure and I just wish all shows had birds of that quality and depth and believe me, I have judged at quite a few major events including the recent Nationals held at Canberra and nothing has compared to this show.

 Now lets talk about the fowl... come to think of it... out of the 200 odd bantams that I judged on the day... there would not have been no more than 1 or 2 scrubbers and any one of about twenty or thirty birds in my section could have won anywhere in the country. Firstly I judged the piles starting with the cock even though there was only the one of them he was a quality exhibit. Next were the hens and it was here that I thought wow... this is going to be a good day because the whole class (and there was a heap of them) were top quality and not a hell of a lot between the best and the 6th placed female.

This trend continued through to the cockerel class and I can assure all the exhibitors that the winning bird out of this class would take a lot of stitching at any show. It was a pleasure to judge quality birds in this class and I thought good... I have already found something good enough to put up and then that thought was quickly proved incorrect as I started on the pile pullets. It was this class that made me realise I was judging one of those special shows where I was only nit picking to find the best one, a real credit to all of the breeders. It was out of this class that my winning bantam came from and it was a shame she went off a bit as the day progressed and the result may have been different if we had gotten to her earlier.

My next section was the blue reds with a few quality birds here, some showing a marked improvement with their colour where you could easily tell that they were slate blue and not that dark smoky black as some are. The type was typical with the widest part of them being the shoulders and tapering well into the tail as the standard calls for.

The duckwings were my next class and it was also represented with a quality line up of birds. The evenness of this lot was the highlight of the class with all exhibits showing true Modern type and good colour. The silver male bird was a fine specimen, plenty of lift, good colour, well balanced and if I was going to fault this fellow I would have liked to see another inch longer in the neck and a tad deeper in the wing. I guess he was just plain unlucky that he came up against a pile pullet that was nearly perfect on the day for my best Modern.

Another highlight of the weekend for me was to judge alongside a great man such as Alf Woods, it was a true privilege and to spend time with him at his place, to meet his family and to have a look around his yard of fine fowl.

* A complete DVD from the show and presentation night is available from Mrs Anne Lane. Phone (03) 5381 0161 to order your copy for $25.00 including postage. It's a beauty!!