'Unbelievable showing': Tasmanian Poll Dorset stud wins big at Bendigo

Pictures supplied by Fiona Myers

A Tasmanian Poll Dorset breeder picked up an array of ribbons at the Australasian Dorset Championships Show & Sale in Bendigo over the weekend.

Paul Day, who is stud co-principal at Faraday Park Poll Dorset stud and Sunnybanks Poll Dorset stud, both based at Penguin, Tas, took home the supreme, grand champion ram, group of three rams, best pair of rams and sire's progeny sashes at the annual event.

Faraday Park was originally set up by Mr Day's grandfather in 1960.

Mr Day said the family's performance at Bendigo was simply the "best one ever".

"We've had an unbelievable showing and it's been really good," he said.

Mr Day's June 2024-drop ram, Faraday Park, 240106, was crowned grand champion ram at the show and went on to bag the overall supreme ribbon.

The ram still had his lamb's teeth, and he had no prior show experience, with the Tasmanian show season yet to kick off.

"This is [the ram's] first show that he's been to," Mr Day said.

"I liked him, but you never know what's going to happen in the showring, how far they're going to go."

The ram's dam, FP 180008, also produced the intermediate champion at the Australasian Dorset Championships in 2022.

Mr Day said his 2025 supreme exhibit ram had a "pretty good pedigree" and was sired by Warburn 220470.

The sire was a previous top-priced ram at the Warburn Poll Dorset stud, Griffith, NSW, on-property ram sale, and he also sired Mr Day's ribbon-winning sire's progeny group at Bendigo.

The supreme exhibit ram sold for $13,000 at the championship's sale on Sunday.

Mr Day said he would retain 100 doses of semen from the ram for use in the Faraday and Sunnybanks flocks.

Judge Tim Ferguson, Mallee Park Poll Dorsets and White Suffolks, Hopetoun, said the supreme exhibit was a "very clean, very correct, very well-fleshed ram".

Mr Ferguson said the ram wasn't the biggest in the shed, but this wasn't one of his main priorities when selecting the ribbon winners.

"I wanted a sheep that's going to yield and I think that ram is not the biggest, but he's got a lot of weight in him," he said.

"He stands up really well."

Mr Ferguson said the ram had "clean points" and a lot of carcase.

The grand champion ewe of the show was exhibited by the Hillden Poll Dorset stud, Bannister, NSW.

The ewe originally won her June 2024-drop ewe class.

Hillden stud co-principal James Frost said the ewe was previously reserve champion ewe at the NSW Dorset Championships as a woolly ewe.

Mr Frost said the ewe stood out since it was a lamb.

"She's always been a stand-out ewe at home," he said.

"In the paddock, she just stands out, she's got the breeding and genetics, and stands perfectly all the time.

"She's just a really good sheep."

Mr Frost said the ewe would go back into Hillden's embryo transfer breeding program.

He said the ewe was out of a "really good ewe" and sired by an Armdale Park Poll Dorset stud, Marrar, NSW, ram.

"Her dam was supreme exhibit at the NSW Dorset Championships in 2009, as well," he said.

"She's really well bred."

He said the ewe would be joined in November.

Mr Frost said winning at the Australasian Dorset Championships was the "pinnacle" of the Poll Dorset show circuit.

"It's a great honour to come away with a champion," he said.

Mr Ferguson said the grand champion ewe had a really wide loin, good length and structure.

"That ewe, to put your hands on her, she's solid, the carcase is really good," he said.

"She is true to type - if you want to go back to a true Dorset type, she's there."

Mr Ferguson said correctness was his number-one priority when judging the 240 Poll Dorset sheep exhibited at Bendigo over the weekend.

"I need clean points for our breeding at home so today I was trying to keep that in mind as well," he said.

He said certain lines of sheep stood up well.

"They've got huge yield potentials and they've got to go on well for the commercial side of it as much as the stud," he said.

"In this game, we were pretty keen on seeing a sheep that's got that style and sire appeal.

"As long as the sheep can do the job and carry themselves, that's our game, commercial is our game."