Judges at the Waikato's agricultural and pastoral show have decided a beauty contest which gives new meaning to complaints about pageants being a "meat market".
In this beauty contest, the "girls" were not only being judged on their physical and personality traits, but also on their potential reproductiveperformance.
The inaugural LIC "Miss Waikato ewe hogget competition" at the Waikato Event Centre over the weekend was won by a suffolk ewe entered by farmer Brian Anselmi, of Piopio.
She beat her closest rival, a romney, entered by Charles Truesdale, of Ohinewai, by having the best constitution, feet, and genetic potential to give birth to between eight and 10 offspring over the next five to six years.
Open to all breeds, the contest attracted 23 debutantes from nine different breeds - all of them 18 months old or younger.
But organisers said it did not go as far as a recent Saudi "beauty contest" for locally-bred sheep - known as Nejdi sheep - where 4000 men sat in armchairs around a tiny runway covered with red carpet and the sheep were accompanied by readings from a competition for the best poem in praise of sheep.
