FRESH off a grand champion ram win at the Great Southern Supreme Merino Show in Canberra recently, a Demondrille stud ram has been named supreme exhibit of the Northern Ram Breeders’ Show in Armidale on Tuesday.
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The March-shorn superfine champion ram from the Davis family, Harden, fended off strong competition to receive the highest honour under judges Gavin Swords, Laraben Poll Merinos, Mudgee, and Rod Miller, Glenpaen Merinos, Brimpaen, Victoria.
With measurements of 17.2 micron, a standard deviation of 3.0, co-efficient variation of 17.8 and a body weight of 128 kilograms, judge Gavin Swords said his sheer production placed him above the reserve grand champion ram from the Power family, Airlie Merinos, Walcha.
“He was structurally sound, a hard ram to fault,” he said.
“He was a big ram for that wool type. The reserve grand champion had a big body of wool on him but probably didn’t have the length of body or the structure of the other fella.”
The Harden based stud previously secured the supreme exhibit in 2016. This year’s winning ram was sired by Demondrille 40072 whose father, a Merryville ram, was purchased for $20,000 from Bendigo.
His bloodlines were proven heavy cutters with Demondrille 40072 cutting 16 kilograms at 16 micron.
Stud principal Andrew Davis said he had produced big framed sheep with plenty of good wool.
While the ram was impressive, he wasn’t suited for their own flock use and was set to go under the hammer as The Land went to press on Wednesday.
“We are probably known more as a fine wool stud so we bring our finer ones up to these sales and that’s probably one of the reasons why we are offering him for sale,” Mr Davis said.
“He is probably too fine for what we are doing and we have still got the father.”
The Airlie ram of 17.5 micron and a body weight of 128 kilograms was awarded champion fine wool ram before contesting the supreme champion title.
It capped off a strong showing for the Power family who secured both the champion and reserve champion fine wool ram titles, champion fine/medium wool ram, production class winners and the champion pen of three rams.
It was the fifth straight year the Airlie rams had been awarded the champion pen of three, a title stud principal Murray Power said was very important to win.
“It just shows that you have got a line of breeding and you are producing that good type of sheep in numbers,” he said.
“A big part of that group thing is that they are even, consistent in type.
“One ram was by Langdene 75, another by One Oak ram and one by Grassy Creek ram, which is probably a bit of a testament of the ewe base.
“We just picked them on wool type, so the three fine wools, and they were all between 17.5 and 18 micron, all around that 130 kilogram mark.”
Despite the challenging season, Northern Merino Ram Breeders’ Association president Tim Bower commended the vendors on their animals and the evenness of the rams that were presented in each class.
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
