Wagin Woolorama: Tilba Tilba’s Andrew and Stuart Rintoul all smiles after third Grand Champion Fleece win

Decades of focus on high-quality wool have paid dividends for father-and-son team Stuart and Andrew Rintoul, who secured their third Grand Champion Fleece title in four Wagin Wooloramas.

It was a very special 50th Woolorama for the pair, who said they had always focused on the fibre since operating fine wool stud Tilba Tilba and medium wool stud Dongiemon at Williams.

The superfine fleece, which Andrew described as pleasantly showy, bulky, and heavy, was a standout according to Wool Section head judge Matt Chambers, of Nutrien Ag Solutions in Boyup Brook.

It scored 90 out of a possible 100 points, with a perfect 16 out of 16 for soundness and a high 15 of 16 for density, after earlier being named the Champion Merino Superfine Fleece.

The father and son were all smiles as they spoke about the fleece they shore in October from a beautiful blue-tag, family ram that won Grand Champion Ram at last year’s Perth Royal Show.

The same ram, born in 2020, was named Reserve Champion Ram at last year’s Williams Gateway Expo, and one of his sister’s fleece also won the Champion Superfine Wool Fleece award.

One of the most hotly-contested competitions at Woolorama, there was a strong showing with 140 fleeces from 21 exhibitors from across the Great Southern and further afield.

Tilba Tilba proudly won the coveted Grand Champion title for the first time in 2019, following up the win in 2020, and now 2023.

Andrew said the ram had been used in the paddock naturally this year and through an artificial insemination program last year, with the hope his progeny would be equally as impressive.

“He is a top stud sire… and both he and his sister are heavy-cutting sheep, for a superfine type.” he said.

“And all the progeny, his brothers and sisters have had similar type wool on them.”

With strong bloodlines, the same ram’s niece scooped Grand Champion Fleece at Wagin Woolorama three years ago and a picture of that particular fleece has been Andrew’s iPhone screensaver since.

Andrew said he and his father had been confident the fleece would be a top performer at Woolorama – WA’s biggest sheep and wool show – after realising its incredible evenness.

“Even when the fleece was on the sheep the main characteristic was that it didn’t vary over the whole animal,” he said.

“When it was shorn off, it was a showy, bulky, heavy superfine fleece… and the crimping quality and bundling was spot on.

“We are really happy, and it was an eye catching fleece to boot.”

Tilba Tilba brought along 11 fleeces to Woolorama, as well as four from Dongiemon, a medium wool stud producing 19 micron fleeces which won the Champion Merino Strong Wool Fleece.

It was also a successful show for the King family of Rangeview stud, who broke the Rintoul’s winning stream to win the Grand Champion Fleece title in 2021.

Jeremy and Melinda King – who also won their first supreme exhibit in the Merino section and notched up the most points of any exhibitor across the show – took out both the Champion Fine Wool Fleece and the Champion Medium Wool Fleece in the open category.

The fine fleece from a Poll Merino ewe that won the PROewe competition at the 2022 Rabobank WA Sheep Expo & Ram Sale, while the medium fleece was from a Poll Merino ram sold privately to the Cooper family of Clayton Park stud at last year’s Rabobank WA Sheep Expo & Ram Sale.

The King family’s fine wool fleece was awarded 88 points and the medium wool fleece 87 points.

After the dust has settled on their win, the Rintouls plan to take their Grand Champion fleece to other competitions this year and then spin the wool into a memento.

“The win is a good recognition for what we do on the farm,” Andrew said.

“We have always been about wool, and producing a high-quality and bulky wool because they pay us by the kilogram… and we are living to the Tilba name of being fine wool specialists

“We are producing a very good, superfine wool type.”

WAGIN WOOLORAMA WOOL SECTION

Grand Champion Fleeces

Grand Champion Fleece: Tilba Tilba’s superfine fleece

Grand Champion Fleece (non-stud): WA College of Agriculture – Denmark

Most Points Across the Section (Stud): Tilba Tilba

Most Points Across the Section (Non-Stud): WA College of Agriculture-Cunderdin

Local Producer Award: Gainsborough Farms, Becker Family

Champion Fleeces

Champion Superfine Fleece: Tilba Tilba

Champion Fine Fleece: Rangeview

Champion Medium Fleece: Rangeview

Champion Strong Fleece: Donjidong

Champion Pair of Fleeces (Stud): Auburn Valley

Champion Pair of Fleeces (Non-Stud): AL & CJ Hornsby

Ram Fleece (Stud Class)

Superfine: Tilba Tilba

Fine: Auburn Valley

Medium: Rangeview

Strong Wool: Rangeview

Ewe or Wether (Stud Class)

Superfine: Tilba Tilba

Fine: Rangeview

Medium: Coromandel

Strong: Dongiemon

Two Fleeces, Ewe or Wether (Stud Class)

Superfine: Tilba

Fine: Coromandel

Medium: Dongiemon

Strong: Auburn Valley

Ewe or Wether Fleece (Non Stud)

Superfine: WA College of Agriculture - Cunderdin

Fine: WA College of Agriculture - Denmark

Medium: WA College of Agriculture - Denmark

Strong: AL and CJ Hornsby

Two Fleeces, Ewe or Wether (Non Stud)

Superfine: WA College of Agriculture - Cunderdin

Fine: WA College of Agriculture - Cunderdin

Medium: The Bolt Family

Strong: The Bolt Family