A Dorper ram owned by Mark and Angela Gett of Narrabri has been named Grand Champion Ram of the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
‘Whynot Hadley’, bred at the Gett family’s ‘Whynot’ Dorper stud on Yarrie Lake Road, won his age class (Two-tooth and over) before going on to win the top prize.
Ewes from the local stud also won a range of categories at the prestigious agricultural show.
Mark Gett says they were extremely happy with how the sheep performed.
“There’s four ram age classes, we competed in three and won two of them, and then went on to win Grand Champion Ram,” Mark explained.
“Hadley is an outstanding ram, he’s true to the breed standards and looks good in the show ring, but he’s also highly functional in the paddock.”
The Getts started their Dorper stud nine years ago and are only in their third year of showing at Sydney Royal.
They started preparing Hadley, as well as a selection of younger rams and ewes, one month in advance of the show.
The animals are fed well, handled and halter trained in the lead up.
A younger ram from Whynot Dorpers also won the 3 to 6 month age class, and two Whynot rams in the 6 to 9 month category took out second and third place in the class.
Whynot Dorper Ewes won two of four age classes, and the stud was also awarded the Peter Taylor Memorial group for the best selection of one ram and two ewe lambs.
“The memorial trophy was judging consistency, so they can see you’re breeding quality across the board,” Mark said.
A highlight of the show for Mark was collaborating with the Wee Waa High School Cattle team to successfully present all the stock he had entered.
The students saw that Mark was run off his feet and offered their help in a show of teamwork between North West locals.
Mark was also pleased with how well the animals performed considering the tough seasons over recent years.
“They stood out and presented really well for the season we had, we’re very happy with the results,” he said.
“We are feeling the effects of the dry times, there is just not the market that there normally is for rams because a lot of people have cut their ewe numbers back or they’re just not choosing to join, so the demand for rams isn’t as strong as normal.”
