An excellent season has set up last year’s Australian Sheep & Wool Show Merino champion breeders up for another good showing in 2017.
Rock-Bank, Victorian Valley, took out Victorian-bred ram and grand champion Poll Merino Ram of the show.
Principal John Crawford said he would be ultra-fine super-fine rams, a fine wool ewe and a “pretty handy pair.”
“They are big productive sheep and have done well through the season, they have high quality wool and big meaty frames – I am very happy with them.” Mr Crawford said.
“We look forward to it, the wool is good, the meat is good, the season is looking good in this district.”
He predicted the standard would be the highest it had been in nearly a decade.
Meeting mates was just as important as winning ribbons, particularly in terms of what everyone was able to learn off one another. “Ideas change, there are different trends and there’s a lot to be chewed over,” he said.
The Walton family, Wurrook Merino stud, Rokewood, won the 2016 Merino supreme exhibit of the show, for the second consecutive year.
But stud principal Paul Walton said he wasn’t going with any expectations of a trifecta, this year.
He said Rokewood had also experienced an excellent season, and would be competitive with its five rams and five ewes.
“It’s a great opportunity to show people what you are breeding and just to give yousrself a benchmark,” Mr Walton said. “You may not always agree with the judges, but it’s really just a way of comparing, for yourself, what you have got, more than relying on the ribbons. The good parts and the faults in your sheep become more obvious, when you go our there and get judged.”
