Sheep show success stays in the family

SHEEP have been a part of Alan Harris’s life for as long as he can remember.

These days the successful Costerfield-based Merino breeder is a regular on the show circuit and his daughter is also starting to collect ribbons in handling and judging categories.

With three reserve champions and a champion fine March shorn ewe from his Koole Vale Merino & Poll Merino Stud at the recent Victorian Sheep Show in Ballarat, he now has his sights set on the upcoming Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo.

Last year he achieved his best-ever result in the national competition with a grand champion fine wool ram, plus three champion rams and two reserve champion rams, as well as three places in the fleece competition.

“But you never know how you’re going to go,” he said. “The next show might be different.”

Ava Harris, 16, took out an overall equal third place in a field of more than 30 entrants in the over 13s junior handling at Ballarat and won the Malcolm Holding Memorial Award in the Merino class.

This is on top of first place in the junior judging at the Wimmera Autumn Merino Sheep Show in March.

She said that was her second judging competition.

“I did it at Wimmera in 2022,” she said. “Just to have a go really and learn from it, but it was good experience.

“Obviously I’ve been with dad on the farm, and he talks about the sheep, about the terminology you use, what makes a good sheep, but that was really all I had done.”

Ms Harris said sheep would always play a part in her life.

“I’m not exactly sure what career path I want to take yet,” she said. “But I definitely don’t want to just leave the sheep because I really enjoy that aspect of my life.”

Mr Harris said he enjoyed working with his daughter.

“She’s a great help and she loves doing it,” he said. “But I’m never going to try and force someone to take a career path that they don’t want.

“It’s got to be sustainable and viable, and they’ve got to want it.

“Sheep is one of those things, you’ve got to want to do it because they can be frustrating.”

Mr Harris said he grew up on a farm and became a sheep farmer when he left school.

“I bought my first stud ewes when I was 19, and we registered the stud in 1995,” he said.

“The logical choice was the Merino as there are lots of them around Central Victoria so it’s easier to sell rams, my dad’s always run Merinos too.

“So that was a way to start my business and value-add to the farm, we’re not a big farm so that was the idea, sell rams and make ourselves a bit more viable.

“But we just love the stud show side of it, so it wasn’t long before we started showing and that was good for promotion too, getting ourselves out there to a wider audience.”

Mr Harris is always on the lookout for ways to boost wool as a product and in 2018 he was one of more than 400 woolgrowers who donated part of a fleece to the Flock to Baggy Green project.

It netted about 500 kilograms, or enough to make caps for the Australian cricket team over the next 100 years.

“I love watching cricket,” he said, “and when this came up it was great opportunity.

“It’s getting the message out there about wool.

“We think it’s a great product, it’s renewable, it’s breathable and all those wonderful natural things, it fits where the world is right now.

“The exciting bit is just getting our message through and getting that product out there.”