The Perth Royal Show is a wonderful opportunity to educate the public about the importance of the sheep industry, and the many longstanding benefits of the Merino breed in general. The public traffic through the sheep section on the days that the Merinos were shown was wonderful and gave a great opportunity for city folk to see some excellent examples of our beloved Merino sheep breed. The Perth Royal Show gives a real opportunity for the city/country gap to be reduced and the delight on some of the children’s faces is priceless as they see the size of some of the rams and run their fingers through the white, bright fleeces.
Unfortunately, here in WA, all the media news around the potential threat of Foot and Mouth Disease from Bali created quite a stir. The RAS (Royal Agricultural Society) had to design and implement a biosecurity plan, which took considerable time and funding. Signage and mats into the various animal arenas which had public access, saw the introduction of wet foot mats of disinfectant. This also impacted the general Royal Show, with entry and exhibitor numbers down on previous years.
However, the strong battled on, and Milnes Feeds Bruce Rock Depot representative, Robyn Jones, was on hand to present the Milne-sponsored awards, as listed below:
Grand Champion Autumn shorn Ram, was won by “BELKA VALLEY”, the Jones family of Bruce Rock (and local Milne depot operators) so we are not sure how Robyn went presenting this award to herself!
Grand Champion Autumn shorn Ewe, was won by “EASTVILLE PARK”, the Mullan family of Wickepin.
Exhibitor gaining most combined points in the sheep and wool classes and Exhibitor gaining most points in open Merino classes, was won by “TILBA TILBA”, the Rintoul family of Williams.
Another highlight that sat alongside the sheep section for the entirety of the show was the wool and shearing section. There were daily shearing and wool handling demonstrations, with the odd fleece being “accidently” thrown over the crowd, again to the children’s delight.
The AWI future sheep producers challenge was a big part of this and saw the Agricultural college students competing in all manner of both wool and handling sections, including ram judging, shearing and wool handling divisions. It is great to see so much enthusiasm and passion being displayed by our younger generation, and the usual Ag college rivalry was well and truly alive to spur the competition along. Well done to Cunderdin Ag College for taking out the first place overall.
Milne Feeds would like to congratulate the winners of all the classes at the Royal Show and encourage the Ag students to keep pushing forward and supporting both the sheep and wool sectors into the future. Milne Feeds would also like to commend the stud breeders across all breeds for such a quality line up to display and promote the industry in general. It has been quite a year for both the Stud Merino Breeders Association of WA and all the British and Shedding breeds, and Milne has been delighted to sponsor and assist with the Royal Show and various other sheep events and sales throughout 2022.
