The large crowd around the show ring of the Livestock Pavillion at the Melbourne Showgrounds became quiet, and people watched closely as the chief steward came back to the six judges and whispered to them.
A few minutes before, the judges had handed in sheets of paper, on which they had individually placed the 14 rams vying for the all-breeds champion title.
The steward took the microphone and announced there was a tie for first place.
Both the White Suffolk ram exhibited by the Kyle family’s Ashley Park stud, Bairnsdale, and Poll Dorset exhibited by the Frost family’s Hillden stud, Bannister, NSW, received 19 points.
He called on Ian Bucknall to break the tie. Mr Bucknall was a renowned breeder in his own right and had Yaralla Poll Dorset stud, before he sold it in the 2000s. He also served as a Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) board member for 21 years and judged major shows in Australia and overseas.
His vote saw the Hillden ram win the title.
Brothers Anthony and James Frost also had enormous smiles on their faces when their junior ram was announced the winner.
Their team of seven rams was a late entry and Anthony said they wanted to return to Melbourne after a strong showing last year.
This year’s champion was also top ram at the Australasian Dorset Championship in Bendigo last weekend; supreme at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show (ASWS) also in Bendigo in July, and won its class at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
It was shown in wool last weekend, and the brothers said showing it bare shorn this weekend was a great way to fight back at comments, including some made online, that showing sheep in wool could hide faults.
“We know ours will shear up, because they do if the shape is genuinely there,” James said.
Anthony said showing Poll Dorsets in wool was important because it was another way the sheep could show true Dorset type. He said a nice downs type wool was great for sucker lambs’ skin and helped to keep them fresh.
The August drop, 127.5kg ram scanned 9mm fat, 51mm muscle depth, 104mm muscle width and 40.8sqcm muscle area. It was by a Tattykeel 70-12, which is sire that goes back to a Hillden ram and has bred well for the Frost family’s stud. The ram will be joined naturally in November and James said they would market its semen.
Fellow NSW Poll Dorset stud, Valley Vista, was awarded champion ewe.
They were the top sheep of the total 573 exhibited and judged over Saturday and Sunday.
Valley Vista stud principal Andrew Scott was thrilled to win their first interbreed champion at Melbourne.
While the points were being calculated for the champion ewe, judge Graeme Hibbard, Deepdene Poll Dorset stud, Narrandera, NSW, shared his pick.
As with the overall judging panel, he put the Poll Dorset ewe first and said it was “a magnificent sheep” and had meat right through carcarse while maintaining its femininity.
Mr Scott said it was the first time for about seven years Valley Vista had a team at Melbourne, and during the about seven years they showed before then, he used to “idolise the guys who won the interbreed”.
“It’s the prestige of the Royal Melbourne Show.”
The ewe had already amassed the supreme ewe title at Canberra Royal and continued to win her class at Sydney and the ASWS. It also won the wool ewe class at the Dorset Championship.
Mr Scott said the April 2016 drop ewe would go into ET program probably end of November. She is by home bred sire nicknamed ‘Fife’ (following their tradition of naming keeper rams after Brownlow medallists), who was supreme Poll Dorset at the ASWS a few years ago.
Other interbreed winners included the supreme heritage breed exhibit was awarded to the Ireland family’s Romale Southdown stud, Bunding. The two year-old ram of New Zealand bloodlines weighed 144.5kg.
NZ judge Kim Ridgen said the ram’s structure impressed her.
“It will breed some magnificent progeny,” she said.
The White Suffolks’ team won the ram trifecta (three rams of the breed, which can be owned by different studs) by a margin of one point, with Hampshire Downs in second.
Sires progeny group was awarded to Bron Ellis’s Sweetfield Corriedale stud, Mt Moriac.
Judge Ian Starritt, Womboota Pastoral, Womboota, NSW, said the competition was very tough and he put the Corriedales first because of their evenness of fleece and carcase, good structure and being a true representation of the breed.
Wollondale Hampshire Down stud, Towrang, NSW, won the breeder’s group, with the Sweetfield’s group only one point behind.
