'Beast of a ram' provides icing on cake for Collinsville stud's show season

A massive, strong wool ram from Collinsville stud at Hallett which has towered over its opposition at major interstate shows all year has claimed supreme Merino or Poll Merino exhibit in his home state.

After being unbeaten for the year Lustre 565 was the odds-on favourite to do it again at the Royal Adelaide Show but young Harry Dalla, who was holding the 175 kilogram ram, was beaming from ear-to-ear when the three judges and two associate judges announced their decision.

In July last year, the ram was part of the winning National Pairs and was AI'ed to some ewes. After this, stud principal George Millington and general manager Tim Dalla decided to show him in wool.

Lustre 565's first outing was winning SA Ram of the Year at the Elders SA Expo at Burra in March, and from there, he has been unstoppable, including winning supreme exhibit at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo and Australian Ram of the Year in Dubbo, NSW last month.

The May 2023-drop has wowed plenty of judges with his terrific, strong wool, and at the pointy end of judging he was selected as the supreme champion August shorn Merino or Poll Merino exhibit.

Uruguayan judge Juan-Manuel Gonzalez from the San Antonio stud, near Salto, described Lustre 565 as a "beast of a ram"

He was in Australia in 2016 when he bought a ram from the North Ashrose stud at the Adelaide ram sale to export, but said it has been a privilege to come back as a judge.

"They are really beautiful sheep with excellent structures and excellent wool carried by these big and well-planted animals," he said.

Fellow judge Charlie Brumpton, Jolly Jumbuck stud, Mitchell, Qld, said the supreme Collinsville ram was "very hard to fault"

"He is so correct on his feet, he is up on his pasterns and walks well which for a big ram like that with a lot of weight," he said.

"And he has a tremendous strong wool that stands out."

Also in contention was the grand champion August shorn Merino ewe from Glendonald stud, Nhill, Vic, grand champion August shorn Merino ram from Greenfields stud, Hallett, and grand champion August shorn Poll Merino ewe from Orrie Cowie stud, Nhill, Vic.

From there, Lustre 565 overcame the Elders and Elanco National supreme champion March shorn exhibit - a medium wool ram from the Poll Boonoke stud in NSW to reign supreme.

"He has good medium wool all over him, plenty of bone and stands up tall and long," Mr Brumpton said.

The 19.3M ram had wool tests of 2.8SD, 14.7CV and 99.6CF.

Tim Dalla said it was the "icing on the cake" of an unbelievably successful year.

"This ram has been unbeaten all year in 2025 and we had a ram last year that was unbeaten last year, so to win the trifecta of the three majors - Adelaide, Bendigo and the National Ram of the Year - two years in a row is phenomenal," he said.

"I never dreamt of doing it, but we got there.

"He is embryo-bred for a couple of generations, so it is no fluke, it is something that we have been working towards and he is just so friendly with the kids."

The ram's sire is $88,000 Lustre 33 who was sold to the Lach River and Westray studs in NSW.

Lustre 565 is being retained within the stud, although there are a few studs across Australia that have managed to secure semen.

"We will shear off his tremendous fleece and then have him go out with some ewes," Mr Dalla said.

In coming months the ram will also head to an AI breeding centre in NSW to have semen collected for Argentina.

Mr Millington said they were immensely proud to have won the trifecta of major shows for the second consecutive year, after achieving the same result last year with Cruden.

"We have been chasing commercially relevant sheep that make money for us and our customers, so it is very gratifying that when we have put our sheep in front of the judges, they have seen the value in what we are doing," he said.

"To achieve the trifecta once is not easy but to do it two years in a row is tripley hard."

He paid tribute to the Collinsville team and said it was all the one percenters that made the difference.

"We sell some of our good rams and we keep some, but we do like to keep the good ones like him that are special," he said.

"He is outstanding for the attributes we are looking for, he will be used in the stud quite extensively for the next two to three generations."

Collinsville stud won the Lehmann Trophy for the best group of five Poll Merino sheep and were also the most successful exhibitor across both March shorn and August shorn classes with their 11 head.

"It is a great way to finish the year and also lead into our ram sale Tuesday week, it shows the depth of breeding in our program and hopefully we have the momentum so people want to come and look at the genetics," Mr Millington said.