Barry Shalders has taken home a lot of sheep show ribbons in his time, but he's ticked off a new achievement, winning supreme champion English Leicester for the first time at the Melbourne Royal Show.
Mr Shalders, who runs Willow Drive English Leicester stud, Grassmere, has been a long-time breeder and shower of South Suffolk sheep, but in the last 12 months has added a new breed to his repertoire.
He's been showing his English Leicester sheep at other shows, including the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo and Sheepvention in Hamilton, throughout the year, but this is the first time he's had them on the mat at Melbourne.
His three-year-old ram took out supreme of the breed, over his almost-two-year-old ewe.
Mr Shalders said the ewe had actually come out on top of this ram and his other rams at most shows this year, so it was a different result to have the ram judged supreme.
But he said that just showed that each judge had different perspectives, and he himself struggled to split the two exhibits apart.
He said the ewe had won reserve interbreed longwool at Sheepvention after being the breed's supreme at the event.
"We've been everywhere in the last 12 months and the ewe's been pretty successful," he said.
"The ram is an older ram, but he's got good wool, length and carcase."
