AWN's John Croake unpacks what it takes to stand out in the Merino production class at the 2025 Sydney Royal.
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00:00So what the idea of the production class is, is to bring the animals out and judge the animals on four or five different aspects.
00:07One, we actually shear the sheep, so we're actually judging the wool.
00:10We actually eye muscle the animal to see what the eye muscles, the carcass value.
00:14And we individually judge the sheep on squareness and on body type.
00:19I'm trying to still prepare the wool and skirt it minimally, but still take off what is needed to be taken off the fleece due to coat of practice and roll the fleece up.
00:27Because obviously the most money for the animal is in the fleece wool.
00:31So we skirt the fleece, take the skirtings off.
00:34The skirtings are still weighed and valued, and the belly is also taken off and valued as well.
00:38The merino sheep is a dual purpose animal.
00:40So carcass is very, very important these days, especially the way meat prices are.
00:44If we can produce our weather lambs and have them killed, that is very, very profitable for the animals.
00:48So clients of these studies are looking for animals that are very, very productive in wool-wise, also in carcass.
00:57And that's kind of like a little bit of a habit.
01:02That's the last part of this study.
01:04So it's pretty hard to wiggle the food before the animals.
01:09So those who are vying on the freeze, they see a lot of horses, a lot of horses, a lot of horses, a lot of horses, and a lot of horses.
01:16They see a lot of horses.
01:18So things are doing well.
01:19So the next thing I see is a lot of horses.
01:21So the next thing I see and it shows you.