ACTIVITIES celebrating footy and family, and their connections to farming, have been added to this year's Sheepvention line-up.
Geelong footballing superstar Tom Hawkins will open Sheepvention and share his passion for farming and footy, inspired by growing up on the family's sheep, beef and rice farm in southern NSW.
Hawkins is part of the Fibre of Football campaign.
In his second year as Sheepvention president, Nick Sutherland also is excited about ramping up the community atmosphere of the event by building on the success of last year's Woolly West Fest, which saw schools, businesses and groups in Greater Hamilton make craft sheep to celebrate the children's book Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek's
This year, he said the activities would focus on cartoon character George the Farmer, who has appeared in books (one of which is included in the Australian Schools' Curriculum), songs and a mini-game app.
George's latest book George the Farmer Shears a Sheep tells a tale familiar to many Sheepvention patrons: it's shearing time, but will George and his friends get the sheep shorn before the rain sets in?
This year's event will be held on Monday August 3 and Tuesday August 4 at the Hamilton Showgrounds.
Mr Sutherland said the anticipated 25,000 visitors, who every year come from throughout Australia, would again this year be treated to the 1000-head sheep show with White Suffolks being this year's feature breed, farm dog trials, invention competition, wool fashion parade and an extensive trade exhibitors list.
Sheepvention's ram sale (held on the Tuesday) is unique in featuring pens of five rams, which draw vendors and buyers from throughout Australia. Mr Sutherland hopes to build on the trend of solid prices and increased clearance rate achieved at last year's ram sale, in which 86 per cent of the 389 rams (Merinos, Dohnes and Corriedales) sold to $22,000 (for a Poll Merino ram from Pemcaw, Dunedoo, NSW), and average $2350.
"The Sheepvention ram sale is a very serious platform," Mr Sutherland said.
One principal who agrees is Alan Schinckel, Leenala Poll Dorset stud, Naracoorte, South Australia.
The Schinckel family have been bringing sheep to Sheepvention since the early 1990s, and make the trip over the border because they sell a number of rams into Victoria's Western District every year.
"Sheepvention is quite early in the year for us so the sheep aren't overdone and are in good commercial condition," Mr Schinckel said.
"These days we are most interested in the performance classes in which performance figures are taken into account as well as a visual assessment.
"Sheepvention does these classes well."
He said the other great thing about the Hamilton event was it was well attended by commercial operators, particularly compared to some of the capital cities' shows.
