A MERINO ram from the McBurnie family of Weealla Merino and Poll Merino stud, Balladoran, has taken out supreme exhibit of the Merino breed at the NSW State Sheep Show.
Judged by Australian Food and Agriculture's stud breeding manager, Angus Munro, about 20 head of Poll Merino and Merino sheep, represented four studs
Weealla 202 was the champion medium/strong wool ram that went on to be the grand champion open Merino ram of the show, before winning supreme Merino exhibit.
The four tooth ram was sired by Glendonald 3.43 and from a ewe sired by White River Kaldoona.
He weighed 165 kilograms and measured 19.7 in the micron with a standard deviation of 3, coefficient of variation of 15.2 per cent and comfort factor of 99.7pc.
"The sheer size of the ram catches everyone's eye," Stuart McBurnie from Weealla said. "He would've been the biggest ram out of all the sheep there. He is big and has good bone and a good bulky, medium sort of wool.
"At this stage he will be retained within the stud. There has been quite a few enquiries so we may look at selling semen."
Judge Mr Munro said the ram was an "all-rounder with presence, a sirey outlook, scale and wool quality".
In the interbreed competition Weealla's supreme winning ram went on to win the champion long wool interbreed ram title.
For champion ram of breed, the tag 202 ram overcame stiff competition from stall mate Weealla 55, the Poll Merino ram that was the champion fine/medium wool ram, who claimed reserve grand champion open Merino ram of show.
Champion Poll Merino ram was Weealla 372, sired by Collinsville 141, who was second to the supreme exhibit, Weealla 202, in the medium/strong class.
The Weealla team will now head to Bendigo in July before the Dubbo Merino National in late August.
In the March shorn section, Roseville Park had a successful showing with milk tooth medium ewe Roseville Park 41 named the champion March shorn ewe. She then went on to be the grand champion open Merino ewe of show, as well as the champion Poll Merino ewe.
The embryo transfer (ET) ewe was by Willandra GP and from Roseville Park 13-400, a daughter of Eclipse 9-14.
Four tooth and under winner, Royalla A20650, was the champion fine wool ewe who went on to be the reserve grand champion open Merino ewe of show.
Roseville Park 40, a full ET sister to the grand champion ewe, won reserve champion March shorn ewe, another another full ET sibling, Roseville Park 43, was the champion March shorn ram.
The three March-shorn sheep teamed up to win the Merino group of three, and represented the breed in the interbreed competition.
Matthew Coddington from Roseville Park said what all three of the full ET siblings have is really good make and shape - they are really well structured animals.
"They have good early growth rates, and really pure eye and wool," he said. "They will all go on to Bendigo."
Rounding up a successful show for the Roseville Park stud, they also won reserve March shorn ram with their horned ram Roseville Park 159, and were awarded most successful exhibitor.
Chief steward of the Merino breed, Mr Coddington said the event was now considered a major show for the Merino breed. "The prestige of the interbreed and being judged against other breeds makes the show unique."
Champion superfine wool ewe went to Tambua Poll Merinos at Cobar.
- Full report from the NSW State Sheep Show in the June 6 issue of The Land.