He might have been known as Jimmy before the weekend but one poll Merino ram shown by Victorian stud breeders Kevin and Danni Crook has been elevated to the status of James following his triumph at the Queensland State Sheep Show at Charleville.
The junior medium wool ram from the Tamaleuca stud based at Ouyen in Victoria's far north west was named the supreme exhibit at the show held at Charleville on Friday.
The ecstatic stud principals, who took two days to travel the 1400km north with their show team, said they hadn't come to win but were very happy with the sheep they'd put forward.
"We thought we had a fairly good team and we just wanted to support Queensland," he said.
Their aim was to repay the miles travelled by Queensland Merino breeders to the Australian Sheep and Wool Show at Bendigo, which they are heavily involved in.
In addition, they felt their sheep were familiar with Queensland-style conditions, being based just south of Mildura in north west Victoria, where the average rainfall is 300mm.
They first made the trip north last year, when the state sheep show was at Cunnamulla, but it's this year that's brought them the most success.
"We've probably gone away from the traditional three-fold neck but we still pride ourselves on cutting a fair bit of wool," Mr Crook said.
Jimmy/James was bred from a Tamaleuca sire and South Australian ram White River 546, Australia's Hogget Ram of the Year around five years ago, is his grandfather.
Mr Crook said Jimmy had done quite well in Adelaide last year as a March shorn junior ram, in the fibre meat class, and this March was reserve champion medium wool ram at the Horsham Sheep Show.
His progression at Charleville was from junior medium wool ram, to champion poll ram, to supreme poll exhibit, then supreme exhibit of the show.
He was up against Wilgunya's supreme Merino exhibit for the ultimate trophy and judge Rick Keogh, former owner of the Terrick Merinos stud at Blackall, said the two rams were testament to the quality of sheep on display on the day.
"The sheep we looked at today were outstanding," he said. "As an industry you can be proud of how far you've come."
The Tamaleuca stud also returned home with a swag of other trophies, including grand champion poll ewe and ram, the poll breeder's group, and the poll Merino aggregate.
The Crooks say they try to breed a dual purpose sheep.
"We're concentrating more and more on meat, sad to say, but wool is not as important on our traditional type Merinos as we used to have," Mr Crook said.
"Times are moving on. We've had a registered stud for about 35 years, and we started off with a traditional horned type sheep, and a lot of wool, but now we've gone to polls.
"We had trouble selling horned rams - we had two studs running for a while, and now we're even thinking about starting another stud, for an even plainer, more meatier type of sheep in the Merinos. It'll be more of a dual purpose type of sheep than what we've got now."
Mr Crook explained that they were in an area where meat markets were important, meaning they had to compete against British breed rams for a lot of their clients.
"If we can do that in a Merino, where they can have self replacing meaty-type Merino sheep - we'll see how we go," he said.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
