Sheep show alpacas them in

ORGANISERS of Sunday’s rebranded Victorian Sheep Show, and the Ballarat Alpaca Show, are hailing them as the most successful in years.

Held at the showgrounds, the combined events saw breeders, exhibitors, visitors, and sheep and alpacas, fill two sheds.

“Our numbers have increased greatly and I’ve just had someone who has been a part of the show for five or six years come up to me and say he’s never seen it as busy as it is,” said Lucy Quartermain, Executive Officer of the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society.

“It was a huge risk to change the name and the date but judging by these sheds we’ve pulled it off.”

While the showing and judging of sheep and alpacas was the focus of the day, there were many other events happing.

Things like fashion shows, a working dog competition, and mental health workshops, along with the regular Rotary Market, were about adding to the core events.

“It’s important for our community because they might not see agriculture but here, they can get up close with it,” Ms Quartermain.

“Part of the Victorian Sheep Show are the five Fs, fibre, food, fashion, farming and festival, we came up with that so we can build on this event and keep growing.”

Sheep farmer Milton Savage currently has about 1000 Corriedales on his Skipton farm and brought 16 of them, a mix of rams, ewes and lambs, to the event.

His interest in showing is in part to benchmark his blood stock.

“We sell rams, so it’s a good way of publicising it and you get a crowd here,” he said. “It makes a big difference, it’s not the be all or end all, as some people look at different things, but when you’re bringing the sheep to a central place, people come and have a look.”

At the other end of the cycle are wool users, like Ballarat company Interknit.

Co-owner, Kassie Balszak, ended up exhibiting at the event after her company was asked to submit some pieces for the fashion shows.

While it’s not currently possible to drill down to the exact sources of the wool Interknit uses in its products, they do buy certified Australian Merino wool.

“We’re all about local,” Ms Balszak said. “We want to support local wherever we can, we are local, so we want to boost the awareness that there is still stuff coming out of Australia.

“If we’re not supporting our own suppliers in our own country, that kind of defeats us.”