WHILE Cootamundra stud, Jindalee, and Braidwood Central School's Monkittee stud shared the broad ribbons in the Sydney Royal Texel ring, it was Andy Robert's Jindalee stud which walked away with the supreme title for the breed.
This was Jindalee's first time exhibiting at Sydney.
Shearing commitments prevented Mr Roberts from attending the competition, so his sheep were shown on his behalf by James Corcoran, Boorowa.
The top Jindalee exhibit, drawn from the milk-tooth woolly ram class, had only previously been shown at Canberra Royal, where it had been first in it's class.
Earlier in the morning the ram had been sashed grand ram, and judge Wayne Whale, St Paul's College, Walla Walla, had no hesitation in selecting it over Monkittee's grand ewe for the supreme Texel title.
"Both are only young sheep, but I love the muscularity of this well-put-together ram, which also stands well," Mr Whale said.
"The ewe would have had to have been a super excellent ewe to have been put above the ram."
Speaking following the judging, Mr Roberts said both his top rams were infused with genetics from the United Kingdom.
"Both were sired by a Te Rakau ram from Rob and Maria Woods' Te Rakau stud, Bindi Bindi via Moora in Western Australia, which was 50 per cent UK blood," Mr Roberts said.
Mr Roberts has been using the Woods' UK-infused genetics for the past four years, and said the result was a boost in growth rate among his sheep.
"My sheep would only have 25pc UK blood, but it's been enough to boost their size - I've been told my top ram was one of the biggest in the shed this year," he said.
Mr Robert's reserve ram came from the shorn, milk-tooth class and Mr Whale said there had been "little between the two" at the finish, however, the older ram edged out his younger competitor with "a little more meatiness" in a high yielding carcase.
"Both top rams were great examples of the Texel breed," he said.
Mr Whale selected the top Monkittee ewe for her muscling, wide back and stance.
Braidwood Central School agriculture teacher, Mick Wall, said the school's top two ewes - both drawn from the shorn milk-took ewe class - had repeated their placings from last month's Canberra Royal.
He said both ewes were sired by last year's Sydney Royal grand champion Texel ram, exhibited by Phil Balcombe, Cranbrook stud, Canowindra, which the school bought after the Royal.
The Cranbrook ram has since been used widely across the school's 50 head of stud ewes.
Monkittee also exhibited the Peter Taylor group of a ram and two ewes for the interbreed competition the following day, and were named the most successful exhibitor in the breed.
Just under a dozen Texels from the two exhibitors were paraded before Mr Whale.
