THE annual Swan Hill Show Prime Lamb Hoof & Hook competition has unveiled one championship success story, but the final results will not be available until next week.
Kerang’s D.I. Gitsham grabbed the prizes in the Heavy Prime and Medium Prime categories of the hoof section and was named overall champion and reserve champion.
Colin Gitsham was on hand to receive both broad ribbons.
Other hoof-class winners were Wyana Pty Ltd, Pental Island, in the Heavy Merino section and Ettershank Pastoral, Gonn, NSW, in the Medium Merino section.
The Central Murray Best Wool Best Lamb Group Initiative, hosted by Swan Hill District Agricultural & Pastoral Society, made a few changes to the format this year and were caught out by seasonal circumstances.
Hoof judging was held at the showgrounds on September 15, with carcase judging at the Woodward Foods Abattoirs on September 17 – followed by a competitor debrief and presentations at the Swan Hill Club that night.
Both categories used the Meat & Livestock Australia-Meat Standards Australia cuts-based sheep meat model.
BestWool/BestLamb co-ordinator Rick Ellis said the decision to bring this year’s show forward was impacted by the season, in which entries were down on 2023.
But did not affect the quality of the sheep, and Mr Ellis said some of the lighter entries were outstanding performers throughout the competition.
“The season has not been the best, and we are aware some regulars may have thought their lambs were not up to 22kg or better they simply weren’t ready for the competition, and I guess that’s a decision they would have to make themselves,” he said.
“By bringing it before the show we hoped to access more first-draft sheep because the traditional first week in October sees a lot of people with hay on the ground, ready to be raked and baled, and many others going hard to start planting their rice.
“But I have to say we were very pleased by the way the whole thing has run, the induction, with the weighing and scanning for eye muscle and fat depth went off without a hitch.
“We are pretty optimistic the show will be bigger and better in 2025 now people understand what we are doing, and why – and it is also starting to get more support from the agents.”
Mr Ellis said the debrief had been a highlight.
He said the industry presentations were well received and a lot of questions came from from competitors and interested participants.
Speakers included MSA manager Lachlan Jeffers and Lambplan’s Marnie Hodge.
He says a lot of the talk about the carcases centred around Australian sheep breeding values and their impact on the competition.
“It is important for breeders and producers not to get lost pushing single traits too hard, such as intramuscular fat,” Mr Ellis said.
“What ASBVs offer us is the ability to pay attention to the performance of all traits as they work to improve the genetic profile of their sheep.
“Ours is one of two groups in Australia currently using the MLA MSA cuts-based sheep meat model (Brisbane’s EKKA is the other) because when you look around, so many other commodities – beef, wool, wine – have gradings but lamb does not. Lamb basically all goes in the one box.”
Mr Ellis said the final assessment data was being analysed in Armidale by MLA and he anticipated releasing the details next week.
