CHEVIOT
Supreme: Roger Wilkinson, Wangoom.
Champion ram: Roger Wilkinson
Champion ewe: Roger Wilkinson
A long-bodied ram has been awarded this year's supreme Cheviot champion ribbon.
Wangoom's Roger Wilkinson said the judge chose the ram, over the ewe, due to his greater "stretch."
"He's got quite a long body," Mr Wilkinson said.
"He's a one-year-old ram and from my point of view, as a breeder, he's got a very clean head, a good back line, decent hindquarters on him, stands up and moves well.
"Cheviots do have to move, they're a hill breed of sheep and they're built for moving."
Mr Wilkinson said his family had been breeding Cheviot sheep since 1948.
"They were brought out in the 1900s briefly and then died out and were re-introduced in 1938 and there's still maybe a dozen studs left in Australia," Mr Wilkinson said.
"There's four of us with decent numbers, maybe 80 or 100 ewes - I have about 100 Cheviot ewes in my stud."
He runs a Romney and Cheviot studs, with any ewes that don't go into the stud flocks used as a cross.
"That's my commercial crossbred ewe flock and I then buy Southdown rams to put over them.
"When you scan the Cheviot rams they have as much meat on them as rams of some other breeds, which are a fair bit heavier and bigger, so they are a meaty animal."
