Annual Merino sale, students’ showing success and Poll Dorset popularity
The Australian Sheep and Wool Show has kicked off in Bendigo. See the supreme winners and this year’s champion fleece.
Annual Merino sale
A Western Australian ram has fetched the top price at a pinnacle Merino sale at Bendigo, while two private sales before the auction reached $40,000.
The Australian Sheep and Wool Show annual Merino sale kicked off with a large crowd and active bidders from across Australia on Sunday, as top producers vied for top genetics.
A Rangeview ram fetched $16,000, while Collie Cattle Company or Collinsville achieved the best price for a Merino ewe with $13,000. Twenty-four lots were passed in, with 68 lots selling with an average price of $4805.
Two private sales before the annual auction fetched $40,000 respectively. A Kamora Park Merino ram, 240127, sold to Roemahkita at Cummins, SA, while Banavie Merino secured a Laraben Poll Merino ram, tag 240059.
Rangeview Merino and Poll Merino stud won the national pair competition on Saturday, as well as national ewe with the “kids’ pet” Bounty.
The Darkan, WA, stud principal Jeremy King said they retained Bounty, while the successful ram was bought by McRae Oaks.
“The ram’s ET-bred, he’s out of one of our best poll ewes on the place and we’re very pleased he’s gone to a very good home,” he said.
“Next year’s team will be shorn next week, so it all starts again. We’re very encouraged to go back.”
Feature breeders thrive with White Suffolk flock
Brayden Gilmore and his family manage seven breeds at Oberon, NSW, and have had great success after featuring just one at Bendigo.
The third-generation farmer breeds White Suffolks, Australian Whites, UltraWhites, Border Leicesters, Texas Longhorn cattle, Red Boar goats and Kelpies. Brayden managed 2000 stud ewes across all sheep breeds.
The Australian Sheep and Wool Show featured White Suffolks for the major national event at Bendigo.
“Our biggest stud flock is the Australian Whites followed by the White Suffolks,” he said.
They travelled with a team of 15 to Bendigo, and achieved champion ewe, junior champion ram and grand champion ram, and the group of one ram and two ewes.
“The champion ewe is an August-drop ewe, she has beautiful outlook, huge growth for her age, really good eye muscle to weight ratio,” Brayden said.
“We focus on growth but mainly breed type, structural correctness and doing ability.”
He had taken part in the show since its inception.
“Back when it was in tents we were here. It’s been good for our industry, you still see plenty of numbers in different breeds,” he said.
Brayden said they had a tough 12 months at Oberon, NSW, with high altitude presenting challenges this winter.
“We buy in all our reserves to keep things going, year-in year-out. In the industry we’re in you always know there’s someone worse off,” he said.
Brayden believed the industry had turned a corner with a bright outlook ahead.
“Producers are being paid for their article, which is nice. The increase and demand for maternal sides has also increased, so I think it puts us in good stead for the next 2-3 years,” he said.
Flinders students take the showing world by storm
A Tyabb school has finished showcasing the best it has on offer at Bendigo, taking home a collection of brightly-coloured ribbons.
Flinders Christian Community College farm manager Tess Runting manages the showing team, which brought 15 sheep and 10 lambs to Bendigo.
The school has been part of the Australian Sheep and Wool Show for 13 years.
“The team has grown a lot since then, it’s consistently been 10-20 students over the years and this year we have 32,” she said.
“Many of them have gone on to be vets or vet nurses, or working in the agricultural space across Australia. There’s a lot of history within the team and it’s a great network and community the students have.”
She said students learnt about animal husbandry, nutritional needs, breeding and genetics.
“The only thing they don’t do is shearing, they do everything else, whether it be vaccinations or docking,” Ms Runting said.
“They learn about public speaking, confidence and camaraderie. All of these things are life lessons where the earlier you learn them, the more successful you’ll be.”
Year Nine student Ella Spilling hoped for a veterinary career.
“I want to go to different farms and help the animals get better, I’ve loved them ever since I was born,” she said.
“It makes me happy that I’m teaching other people how to take care of animals too. I’ve been here for three years now, (I like) the learning opportunities.”
Meanwhile, Year Nine student Oliver Boyd experienced his first year at ASWS.
“I want to do something with agriculture and animals (after high school). Sheep and horses are what I like the most,” he said.
ASWS chief executive Margot Falconer said there had been an increase in young competitors this year.
“We’re quite delighted the young are stepping up,” she said.
NSW Poll Dorset stud achieves supreme after nine-year hiatus
A Poll Dorset stud has returned to Australia’s biggest wool event swinging, after taking home the interbreed supreme ribbon.
Tattykeel stud co-principal James Gilmore said the NSW-based stud is celebrating 50 years this year, and returned to Bendigo after a near-decade hiatus.
“We’ve shown here 10 times, and we’ve had 10 champion Dorsets out of 10,” he said.
“The way we’ve been accepted in again, I think having a gap people are probably more excited to see you. When they see you every year, especially when you’re doing well, it’s a bit like watching the footy side that wins all the time.”
He managed 1000 stud ewes with strong diversity throughout the flock. James said they headed towards a carcass shape after achieving a bigger, longer animal.
The Tattykeel stud has been a closed flock for 23 years.
The interbreed winner, Tattykeel 240088, was also supreme ram at Sydney Royal and champion ram at Dubbo, NSW.
“He’s a hard ram to fault, he has a lot of growth, length and loin and he’s very, very balanced,” James said.
He said the ram would likely be on offer at the stud’s spring sale in October.
Poll Dorset stud enters fifth generation
Armdale Poll Dorset’s new stud owners Sam and Maddy Armstrong have taken the multi-generational stud by storm, showcasing the “heart and soul” of the NSW farm.
They won the Poll Dorset ram lamb and ewe lamb classes, and the pair of lambs at the 25th Australian Sheep and Wool Show on Saturday. They travelled with seven ewes, six rams and four lambs from Marrar, NSW.
It was their first year showing since purchasing Sam’s grandparents’ stud, and had won supreme exhibit at the Canberra Royal Show.
“I have so much pride in it, there’s a lot of emotion really. My grandfather lived and breathed it, it was his heart and soul,” he said.
Sam is fifth generation on the farm and raising the sixth, with four-month-old daughter Isabelle.
“My grandfather Noel Armstrong was the major influence over the stud, his father’s father started the Dorset Horn stud and it was transitioned to Poll Dorset when Noel took it over,” he said.
“My father Gary Armstrong ran it alongside Noel, and I was lucky enough to be a young boy before Noel died and ran it with them.”
He hoped there would be further support for young people to enter the agricultural industry. Sam launched a livestock cartage business to pay for the stud purchase and farm lease.
“It would be good to get government funding for young farmers, it’s the backbone of Australia and if we don’t look after the young blokes it’s pretty hard,” he said.
“I never take a cheat day, ever. If I’m not on the truck I’m on the farm, and even if I’m on the truck then I’m feeding sheep the same day. My grandfather would’ve worked his guts out the same as I am.
“If I can actually get there, I’ll be one of the only blokes who has done it off his own back, in this generation I feel.”
Sam focused on nice, soft rams, structural correctness and doing ability. He said he believed the Poll Dorset and sheep industry was well-placed for the next 12 months.
“Quality breeds quality and everyone trusts the Poll Dorset breed,” he said.
“I think the ram selling season this year will be good because a lot of people are short on numbers and there’ll be supply and demand.”
The stud is preparing for its fifth annual on-property ram sale on September 19, which would feature its first progeny under Sam’s ownership.
Two-time Merino supreme champions
A South Australian Merino stud is reigning supreme at Bendigo this week, after achieving “the most complete ram we’ve ever bred”.
Collinsville Stud Merinos general manager Tim Dalla at Hallett, SA, said the champion ram was a standout in the stud’s breeding history.
“I feel ecstatic. You never think (to win), you come up against the best in Australia. We knew we had a very good ram but it’s tough competition,” he said.
The ram, Lustre 565 Collinsville, competed in the 2024 event as a one-year-old and won the best March-shorn ram. Mr Dalla said they had used the ram in the stud with “exceptional” lambs already on the ground. They planned to retain the embryo-bred ram for future breeding.
“He has an outstanding head, PP poll, terrific structure for a ram, excellent top line and we’ll cut a lot of very good quality wool,” he said.
“He’s the most complete ram we’ve ever bred. It’s not a fluke, it’s what we’ve been trying to do.”
Mr Dalla managed 10,000 stud ewes and had competed at Bendigo for the past four years.
“We use (the show) for benchmarking against our peers, but at the end of the day it’s about consistency of product, and something that’s profitable so plenty of meat, plenty of wool and plenty of lambs.”
He said they targeted breeding sheep with terrific balance, great size, structure, and strong wool cut. Mr Dalla said the past 12 months had been a challenge, but recent rain and show success had motivated the South Australian team.
“To win this back-to-back is unbelievable, we always dreamt of doing it once, we never thought we’d do it twice,” he said.
“We think (the industry) will be quite positive over the next year. Meat prices have gone up, it’s generally started raining in most areas, wool is fairly stable, we’d like to see it lift and ewe numbers are low, so we think the next 12 months will be quite positive.”
He said there had been “significant interest” in the ram and his genetics, as they geared up for an on-property ram sale in mid-September with about 600 rams on offer.
Grand Champion Fleece
Vying for grand champion fleece is a “simple process” for a Victorian farming family, but it has taken two decades to achieve the top gong.
Kedleston Park stud owners John and Rosemary Humbert have spent a mid-July weekend at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show for the past two decades before taking home the grand champion fleece on Friday.
The Humbert family entered their fleece from a fine medium Merino stud ewe, which scored 95.85 out of 100 points. A New South Wales’ family at Boudjah, Nimmitabel achieved reserve grand champion fleece with 18 micron wool from a superfine Merino ewe.
John, the fourth generation at the Calivil farm, said fleece improvement was a “simple process”. They sheared one group every 12 months, and another each six months in March and September.
He managed about 4500 sheep, lambing in May and throughout spring. He said the season had been a challenge, but they had good fodder reserves in place.
“At shearing time, anything that looks hunky-dory we stick it down the corner of the shed, and when we have time we go back through them and the ones we’re happy with we put them away to enter in the show,” he said.
“We are pretty proud of ourselves.
“You need to have good breeding in your stock for starters. You need to be able to cut a fair bit of wool, a deep, sharp trim and a high yield. It has to be sound and tensile strength.”
Fleece judge Mark Symes said the competition had outstanding quality this year, with an increase in entries.
“The breeding and management skill behind these fleeces is extraordinary,” he said.
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