Mallee Park bags supreme interbreed title at Ballarat with White Suffolk ewe
The Mallee Park stud, Hopetoun, took home the highest interbreed honour at the Victorian Sheep Show at Ballarat on Sunday.
Mallee Park's outstanding White Suffolk ewe won the supreme interbreed exhibit.
It was a sliding doors moment for the stud, who almost didn't attend the show at all after stud principal Tim Feguson fell sick last week.
"We had a couple of issues in the lead-up to the show and then I got sick," Mr Ferguson said.
"We had actually pulled out of the show altogether."
It was his stepson Jack Landrigan who stepped up to take Mallee Park's show team of four White Suffolk and nine Poll Dorset sheep to Ballarat with little to no show experience.
"It was a pretty steep learning curve for him yesterday," Mr Ferguson said.
"Jack has been off shearing for years and has just come back recently and gotten involved.
"It was a bit last minute too so the sheep hadn't had much time on the lead either.
"It was a bit of a rodeo."
The White Suffolks were the feature breed of the Victorian Sheep Show this year.
Mr Ferguson said regardless of his attendance, the family was keen to make it work so they could put their show team to the test.
"We were really happy with our team so we were keen to get down there however we could," he said.
The one-and-a-half-year-old White Suffolk ewe was widely praised for her overall muscling and exceptional carcass traits.
"Her hind quarter, loin and back end are pretty good and that's where I think the breed needs to be, and [it's] what we're trying to achieve," Mr Ferguson said.
Judge Shane Baker, Baringhup, judged the ewe throughout the day as she progressed through the classes and said the sheer volume of muscling on the female put it a cut above the rest.
"She carried it all and was still very feminine," Mr Baker said.
"She had terrific meat down the hind leg and was very adequate through the length and thickness of her loin."
Mr Baker said the White Suffolk ewe was slightly more structurally sound than the ram.
"I think it's pretty difficult to get the volume of muscle on a female as what she had," he said.
"In my mind, she was just the better sheep."
It was an all-female line-up for the final interbreed showdown after all three short wool, long wool, and clean skin champion ewes won out over the champion rams to face off for supreme exhibit.
"I think it's great to see," Mr Baker said.
"It shouldn't matter whether it is a male or female, you've got to give it to the best sheep there."
Mallee Park beat out the long wool supreme exhibit, a Corriedale by Montone Corriedales, Mortlake, and the clean skin supreme exhibit, a Dorper ewe by Brumy's Black stud, Bordertown, SA, to win.
