A. Body Conformation and Muscling
Front Quarter
Neck: The neck should be broad and strong and should fit smoothly into the shoulder with no drop in front of or behind the shoulders. The underside of the neck should be free from folds or wrinkles, although this defect may be forgiven if not present to a major degree. The neck should be long enough to contribute to an overall balanced appearance.
Shoulder: The importance of a reasonably wide and level shoulder cannot be stated too emphatically. Badly set, prominent shoulder blades, causing a depression behind the should, are a major fault and must be condemned. Corriedales should be smooth shouldered. Coarse shoulders and / or open shoulders should be considered a fault.
Chest: The chest should be wide and deep. These points are necessary both for the production of meat and for the constitutional vigor of the animal. It is in a the depth and width of the chest, and particularly in the depth, the that the vital organs of heart and lungs are housed. A shallow, narrow chest indicates small lung capacity, cramped heart room, and in general a weak, delicate constitution.
Underline: The should be level and as parallel to the back or top line of the body as possible. The tendency to slope upwards from the stomach to the chin of the sheep is a bad carcass and constitutional fault. The flank should be dep and full.
Middle
Ribs: Deep and well-sprung ribs should arch out and slights upwards from the spine and carry deeply down to the low brisket. The spring or arch of the ribs is essential for constitutional vigor and fattening qualities, and is also necessary to insure the maximum meat in the chop. The greater the arch to the spring of ribs, the more meat there will be in the important portion of the lamb. Back: The back should be level and straight and reasonably long. Any tendency to a short dumpy back between should and hip, or between hip and tail head, is a serious conformation fault. A slight gradual lowering of the back line in the center of the back is not important.
Loin: The loin should be as long, wide and deep as possible. Muscling in this region is very important since this is the highest priced area of a lamb carcass. Loin eye area is an important criteria in carcass evaluation.
Hindquarters
Thighs: The leg of lamb or mutton should be wide and full as viewed from the rear. Length of rump is also an important aspect of total thigh evaluation. Width behind denotes a wide pelvis aperture and ease of lambing.
Rump: The top line should continue out level and straight to above the dock. Tendency to slope from the hip bones backwards and downward should be avoided.
B. FEET AND LEGS/STRUCTURAL CORRECTNESS
Feet: The feet should be hard, oval in shape and neither completely round nor long and narrow. The should be large enough to bear the animal’s weight in soft ground, and yet not so large that they tend to splay open in walking. The feet should be black in color, though streaky feet or lighter colored feet are permissible, if they are not totally white.
Pasterns: The pasterns supply the spring and cushion of an animal’s walk. A tendency toward too straight a pastern means a jarring, stilted walk. On the other hand, too long and sloping a pastern places too great a strain on the tendons and joints and is a weakness.
Legs: The legs should be of moderate length, well apart and should set straight and be accompanied by strong bone. The bone of the legs should be heavy, and flat or oval in shape. This, light, round bone is a major fault. The legs should be set perpendicularly under the sheep, the front legs directly under the shoulder blades and of similar width to the shoulders. The should stand square in front and behind, and squarely on its feet. The hind legs should carry the hocks in line with the pin bones.
Testicle Size and Soundness: Testicles should be uniform in size, adequate in size for age, well descended from the body, and have no abnormalities. The scrotal circumference on rams 18 months of age or older should be a minimum of 35 centimeters, and 30 centimeters for a 6-month-old ram lamb.
C. BALANCE AND SIZE
Balance refers to the blending together of body parts. The parts of the sheep should be in proportion and any tendency toward extremes should be avoided. Corriedales are a dual purpose breed with growthiness being very important. Animals should be longer than they are tall, and adequate muscling and body capacity should be given strong consideration. Mature rams should weigh two hundred and seventy-five pounds (275 lbs) and up and mature ewes one hundred and seventy-five pounds (175 lbs.) And up.
An updated summary of weights and measurements of animals in recent National Sales can be found as in insert in the publication.