Supreme: Bauer, Ariah Park, NSW
Champion ram: Wattle Farm, Temora, NSW
Reserve: Talkook, Laffing Waters, NSW
Champion ewe: Bauer
Reserve: Wattle Farm
The supreme Border Leicester ewe was the type of sheep judge Des Campbell said you only got the chance to witness “every now and then”.
“She’s an outstanding ewe, young and still has all attributes of an outstanding show sheep with good length, good balance,” Mr Campbell said.
The August 2017-drop ewe was exhibited by the Buerckner family, Bauer stud, Ariah Park, NSW, and came from machine shorn class under one and a half years old.
It was placed above Wattle Farm’s reserve champion ewe, another junior, and their grand champion ram to take out the main prize.
Mr Campbell, Avoca stud, Gulgong, NSW, said the exhibit of Border Leicesters had shown it had “grown as a breed to produce an animal for all different climate areas and compete with other breeds, especially for use over Merino ewes”.
“Breeding ewes with a good fleece of wool is more important than ever, and the Borders have improved by adding more muscle, length and bone structure,” he said.
Bauer principal Jamie Buerckner said the ewe was sired by the same homebred ram which also produced the Bauer ram that was supreme Border Leicester at Melbourne in 2017.
“Her length of body, overall correctness and really good fleece of wool made her a stand out,” he said.
“This year the wool side of it is the thing people purchasing rams are wanting, looking for finer wool – any crossbreds with wool under 30 micron are worth so much more.”
Winning his fourth supreme sash at Melbourne was a good recognition of the Bauer program but Mr Buerckner was focussed on continual improvement, and this year undertook micron testing on his rams for the first time.
“The average was about what I had expected so we will try to bring it down 2 to 3 micron, after muscle scanning I will put that data with the wool test and go back over the rams for selection,” he said
An imposing senior sire from the Sutton family at Wattle Farm was sashed champion Border Leicester ram, weighing in at 174.5 kilograms, with 11 millimetres of fat, a muscle depth of 58mm, 107mm muscle width and muscle area of 47.8 square centimetres.
Mr Campbell said it was a big upstanding sire, good on its feet, with the staple and carcass.
