Wagin Woolorama: Shirlee Downs sweeps the field to win Grand Champion Poll Dorset with ‘muscular’ ram

Competition was fierce in the Poll Dorset judging at this year’s Wagin Woolorama, but it was a ram from Quairading’s Shirlee Downs that proved too good to ignore. The May-drop ram was named the Poll Dorset grand champion after facing off against a “beautiful” ewe from the same stud. Earlier in the day, the ram competed in the Ram Under One Year Born in May class, and was named champion after facing off against a ram from Max Whyte and Gail Cremasco’s Brimfield stud at Kendenup. It was a hugely successful day for Shirlee Downs, with its champion ram and champion ewe both labelled “exceptional” by judge Grant Bingham. The champion ewe rose to the grand champion class after facing off against the reserve champion ewe from Leween stud at Narrogin. Mr Bingham said the Shirlee Downs ram had exceptional form and was the “ram I’d be buying” if he was on the lookout for a stud sire. “There was nothing between them (the Shirlee Downs ewe and ram), but when you look behind the ram and over his back, it is clear just how good he is,” he said. “He isn’t overdone, he has power in him … he is full of meat. “His meat capacity is enormous and if I was buying a stud sire, that’s the ram I would be buying today.” Shirlee Downs stud co-principal Adrian Squiers said the ram, shown by his father Chris Squiers, was among 29 Poll Dorsets the family exhibited. “He was a really stylish, with great presence and a nice head that featured really good extension and bone,” he said. “He has all of the good muscle you are looking for on his frame.” It was not the first time the family had scooped champion ewe and champion ram in the Woolorama Poll Dorset competition but it was the “first time in a while”, Adrian said. It was from a Shirlee Downs-bred sire and dam, with the stud’s exceptional breeding also reaffirmed after it won champion ewe. The ewe faced off against an entry from the Shepherd family’s Leween Poll Dorset stud, of Narrogin. The Poll Dorset competition attracted the second largest number of entries across the seven breeds on display at Woolorama, with 75 from six breeders across 11 classes at this year’s competition. It was Mr Bingham’s first time judging the Poll Dorsets at Woolorama in about eight years, with entries “very good across the board”. The Poll Dorset group classes included three wins from Shirlee Downs: pair of ewes, one ram and two ewes, and two rams and two ewes. Brimfield won pair of rams and group of three ewes.