Setting the standard for Prime SAMM

• Confirmation
  
• Wool

Confirmation 60%

1. Head
   1.1 Mouth. Strong and broad with well formed strong teeth.
   1.2 Eyes. Large, clear and lively.
   1.3 Ears. Large, long and broad with medium thickness.
   1.4 Horns. The ideal is a polled sheep. Horns to a length of 35 mm are permissible in rams on condition that the head is strong and the horns not too bulky.
   1.5 Hair Covering. The entire face and ears should be covered with sufficient soft, white to creamy coloured hair. The head wool should only extend to the level of the orbital ridge and not go much further than a line between the eyes.
   1.6 General appearance of the head. Rams must have strong, masculine and ewes completely feminine heads. The head must be long and broad with a good depth and fit to the body.
   
2. Neck
   Strong, broad and well attached to the shoulders. The ideal is no vertical pleats or horizontal folds in the neck (smooth or plain bodied).
   
3. Forequarter
   Well sprung of ribs for enough chest capacity. Good muscling in the forequarter and the shoulders must be well attached.
   3.1 Chest. Deep and prominent between the legs.
   3.2 Shoulders. Broad, well fleshed, round on top and well attached to the forequarter.
   
4. Middle
   4.1 Body. Well sprung, wide and deep for good stomach capacity.
   4.2 Back. Straight, strong and long.
   4.3 Loin. Wide and well fleshed (strong developed eye muscle).
   
5. Hindquarter
   Must be long, wide, deep and well fleshed and evenly joined to the middle.
   5.1 Rump. Long, wide and well rounded.
   5.2 Hips and thirls. Wide apart but not too prominent and must allow free and easy movement.
   5.3 Buttocks. The outer and inner thighs must be well filled (round) with good muscling.
   5.4 Tailhead. Slightly lower than the rump with pin bones wide apart.
   
6. Legs and Hooves
   Legs must be strong, set relatively perpendicularly and fairly rectangularly under the body. Bone to be of moderate length and thickness in balance with the rest of the body. The hooves must be well formed and placed with preferably free of brown or black colour. Legs must be covered with fine, white to light cream coloured hair. The hocks must be strong and not too straight if viewed from the side. The sheep must be able to walk easily with no weakness or abnormalities.
   
7. Pigment
   A light pink skin throughout the body is desirable with preferably light brown eyelids and light amber hooves. All wool fibres must be white to light cream.
   
8. Genital Organs
   8.1 Testicles. Must be present, normal, equal size and firm with a circumference of 30 cm around both.
   8.2 Scrotum. Well attached, uniform and not too pendulous.
   8.3 Udder. Well formed and attached with two sound, medium size teats.
   
9. General
   When you have to judge sheep, it is important not to concentrate on any one trait but to see the sheep as a whole. Therefore an excellent sheep with one little fault must not be culled right away. Evaluate its good and bad characteristics (qualities). Remember that in Prime SAMM judging the emphasis lies with conformation (meat qualities) and not with wool. The relationship of importance in selection is 60% on conformation and 40% on wool. Both will stay important because it is a dual purpose breed which must produce a lot of meat and enough wool of a good quality.
   

Wool 40%

Wool must be white to creamy white with a good length, elasticity and good staple formation of a fair size. The crimp must be well defined, the handling soft and without coloured fibres and foreign hair or kemp.

1. Fibre Diameter
   Rams 19 - 26 micron
   Ewes 18 -24 micron
   
2. Quality
   Well defined crimp with minimum variations throughout the fleece with a soft handling and white colour.
   
3. Length
   An ideal length of at least 75 mm every 12 months.
   
4. Density
   Wool must be dense, but not too tightly packed.
   
5. Staple Tip and bulkiness
   An even tip with good elasticity and staple formation of a fair size.
   
6. Colour and oil
   The oil must be fluid, the flow even and the supply adequate to protect the wool fibre.
   
7. Wool covering on stomach and points
   Preferably well covered with good density and length, especially in teh case of young animals before they have reproduced.
   
   Permissible

• In older animals, weak or bare stomachs.
• Bare, lower legs under the knee and hock.
  
  Faulty
  
• Bare belly, legs and heads in the case of young animals
• Coarse hair on the buttocks
• Kemp in belly and points (head, scrotum, etc)

8. Wool Mass (production per year)
   Desired minimum of 4.5kg wool a year from rams (average 5.0kg) and 3Kg a year from ewes (average 3.4Kg).