Wool that would "make underpants for angels" has won well-known NSW breeder Wal Merriman his first ever Royal Queensland Show Merino wool championship.
Three fleeces that Mr Merriman sent to Cunnamulla for judging in conjunction with the Queensland State Sheep Show in May, that weren't taken out of the bale thanks to rain calling off the local show, found their way to Brisbane instead.
After careful appraisal by judge Harold Manttan, AWN, the 11.8kg fleece was judged not only champion fine wool ram's fleece but, with 94 points, the grand champion fleece of the show.
Merryville's two ewe fleeces won both the champion and reserve champion fine wool trophies, with the leading fleece scoring 93.5 points.
Each of the fleeces weighed 9.6kg, and all three yielded between 68 and 70 per cent.
"I had these fleeces with nowhere to go so one of the agents said, why don't you bring them to Brisbane, so we worked out a system to get them here," Mr Merriman, who is a regular Ekka attendee, said.
Calling in to the show on his way to the races, Mr Merriman said the grand champion fleece had been shorn from a ram who was judged the grand champion superfine ram at the Sydney Royal Show in 2021.
"We just breed the wool - we like a reasonable frame but wool's the main thing," he said. "It's very stylish, very white, with a very good crimp."
The Roberts family at Victoria Downs Merino Stud at Morven showed the reserve champion ram's fleece, scoring 92.5 points.
QAS spokesman Bruce Lines said Mr Manttan had 55 fleeces in all to judge, making a great display on the upper floor of the Royal International Convention Centre, beside the stage offering Bluey shows among other entertainment.
"We had more the last couple of years, when COVID meant we held the competition at Mitchell and then Morven, and because we had less space at the RICC, we had to scale things back a bit, so I purposely picked out representative fleeces that would do everyone justice," he said.
The superfine class had been dropped from Ekka competition, Mr Lines said, because the numbers weren't coming through, which meant the Merryville fleeces were considered in the fine wool judging.
Mr Manttan, who last judged at the Ekka in 1989, gave the champion flock fleece of the show ribbon to David Lennon of Cranbourne, Yelarbon, which meant the medium fleece also won the champion Queensland-grown Merino flock fleece award.
On the stud side that prize went to Victoria Downs.
Nigel and Rosemary Brumpton, who operate Mt Ascot Merino Stud at Mitchell, picked up the ribbons for champion fine flock fleece, with an entry from their Cunnamulla property Woodstock, while a sheep from their Waratah property, also at Cunnamulla, won the champion strong wool ribbon.
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Mr Merriman said he would now have to work out how to get his prize-winning fleeces to Dubbo for competition in a couple of weeks.
The Merryville wool has been growing under some adverse conditions - two historic droughts back to back, of 250mm a year, to two historic wet seasons - 1000mm - for the past two years.
"It's given us some challenges with the worms, and the flies," he said. "We mulse our sheep and that's got us through. Anyone who doesn't mulse is in a hell of a lot of trouble."
Thanks to the wet summers, yields have been excellent, meaning ewes are returning $90 a head, and the best fleeces are bringing $104.