Family effort in fleece win

It was a big surprise for Bill Lloyd to win this year's champion fleece award at the 43rd Newdegate Machinery Field Days.

Mr Lloyd said he had been away during shearing when his son Ian Lloyd picked out the fleece which was entered in the competition.

The champion fleece was placed first in the medium wool category, earning a total 86 out of 100 points.

A total of 32 fleeces were entered in the event, which is similar to previous years.

Dyson Jones Great Southern regional manager Gavin Shepherd judged the event and said the fleece was a "nice and bright standout fleece".

"Overall it was a pretty even display of wool, all were well grown and nourished," Mr Shepherd said.

Bill and Roz Lloyd have been entering the Newdegate fleece competition for 15 years with their son Ian also competing during this time with his wife Sarah from neighbouring property Lakeside.

Both Bill and Ian run pure Merinos and have been using the East Mundalla bloodlines for the past five years.

Bill said he ran 2000 pure Merinos on the 6000-acre cropping and sheep property in Newdegate. He said his son Ian was involved with the running of both properties with Sarah.

Ian said the properties were run on a 60 per cent cropping, 40 per cent sheep ratio.

He and Sarah also ran an additional 500 cross-bred sheep.

"We have been with East Mundalla for the past five years and chose to use these bloodlines to improve the weight of the fleece and breed a larger framed sheep," Ian said.

He said their wool cut averaged between 18 and 21.5 micron with the champion fleece weighing approximately 7.5kg. Without testing he guessed this fleece was about 20.5 micron.

Ian said the fleece had been shorn with others about 14 days prior to the field days and he picked out the fleece to enter under his father's name for its "brightness and evenness".

Ian and Sarah also won the champion fine wool section of the competition, earning 83 out of 100 points for this fleece.

The super fine wool was won by RG Newman earning 82 out of 100 points.