Sanders County 4-H members raise top lambs

Two Sanders County 4-H members were recently honored as top exhibitors in the lam carcass division.

The Montana State University Extension Service, the Montana 4-H and FFA Programs and Montana Woolgrowers sponsor the program. The Montana Youth Certified Fair Lamb Contest is ranked in two divisions on a statewide level, carcass and ultrasound.

John McNamara earned first place in the carcass division. His 115-pound lamb yielded a Choice+ quality carcass with .05-inch back fat and 4.15 square inch ribeye. The final percent boneless retail cuts score for McNamara's lamb was 52.24.

Taking second place in the carcass division was Hannah Warnes of the Hot Springs Wranglers. Warnes was the small animal round robin senior grand champion at the 2024 Sanders County Fair.

Lambs in the carcass division are shown, harvested, and graded in the cooler by a trained judge on ribeye area, backfat depth and quality. Lambs in the ultrasound division are shown, scanned for ribeye area and backfat depth by trained technicians and may or may not be harvested after the fair. Data is entered into one of two spreadsheets to calculate percent boneless retail cuts for ranking.

Lambs also need to make minimum and/or maximum requirements based on industry standards to be eligible for certification. All certified lambs received a certificate and youth who raised the top two lambs in each division will receive an embroidered jacket. Every county in the state participated in the contest with over 860 lambs measured between the two divisions. Here are the totals and averages for each of the divisions over the past four years.

The top exhibitors in the ultrasound division were Owen Rouse and Nolan Sutton of Flathead County.