Maths in the paddock
WARWICK: For junior cattle judge Thea Diack, the stud section of the Warwick Show was a fine example of geometry in motion.
The 14-year-old Scots PGC student had her first run as an associate judge at the weekend.
She focused on the structure and body mass of each exhibit and spent most of her time comparing angles, lengths and widths of various body parts.
“As a judge you are looking for reproductive soundness,” Thea said.
“With heifers you are looking for wide hips and pins, and the angle between the two should be about five degrees.
“For a cow you are looking for a wedge shape, so they are big at the back and have nice and refined shoulders.”
All of these features enable females to squeeze out calves with ease.
Thea looked at teat length and shape, the range of movement in an animal’s legs as it walked and the angle of its hooves. For bulls, Thea looked at their head and shoulder width, compared to their rump.
Each observation was a mathematical assessment aimed at quantifying which beast was best.
Thea hoped to make both her agriculture and maths teachers proud.
“If I can use something here about volume, depth and width, then it has helped me judge these cattle because I can look at them and know what I see,” she said.
There are about 30 Scots PGC students involved in the school cattle club and most were at the show leading stock in the judging.