Brett Shepherd, Mullinger Park, Naracoorte Community News
After two years off from showing we went to Adelaide Royal this year with no expectations – just wanting to compare our sheep with fellow breeders and catch up after such a long enforced break.
So it was with great excitement and pride when our Poll Dorset ram 21-616 (sired by our own Mullinger Park 17-348) was judged the Champion ram.
He was then up against the champion ewe exhibited by the Davison family’s Morton Stud, she was a ripper ewe that was sired by a Mullinger Park ram and it gives us great pleasure to see our rams going into other studs and doing the job.
A tough decision for the judge and we were sashed with Supreme Poll Dorset Exhibit.
The next day the awards continued as he was also judged Supreme Short Wool Champion.
Judge Daymon Coates said the ram impressed him the first time he entered the ring and continued to do so every time he was out there with his sheer size, muscle content and sirey outlook.
With such a good ram we decided it was time to enter a poll dorset in the elite sale at the show as he was allowed a late entry with the wild card system that is offered to broad ribbon winners.
Competitive bidding commenced and he was sold to the Wilkinson family for their Cramborn Stud in NSW for $10,000.
We also had success with our White Suffolk rams at the show. Winning the pair of rams from a large class of quality sheep, and placed in the ribbons with all senior classes that we entered.
We had two rams up for sale in the elite sale for the first time and were very humbled to sell both for $9,000 and $5,000 respectively with both rams off to WA studs Brimfield and Stockdale.
Our 2022 ram sale will be on Thursday October 6th and the Naracoorte Showgrounds commencing at 1pm. We are proud to offer 200 Poll Dorsets, 100 White Suffolks and 30 Suffolks.
All rams are showing the attributes that we strive for in our stud which are length, muscle and structure. We welcome all past, present and future clients to come and inspect our rams from 10.30am on the day and join us for a bbq lunch and refreshments.
This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.
