Newdegate Machinery Field Days: First time entrant Suma Reid wins champion fleece sash

A Pingrup-produced Merino fleece, exhibited by first-time entrant Suma Reid, was awarded the champion sash at this year’s Newdegate Machinery Field Days fleece competition. There were 20 entries, just slightly down on last year when judged by Dyson Jones Great Southern wool manager Gavin Shephard on September 4. He said the character of the champion fleece was excellent. “Its colour and bloom were outstanding, with a very good tensile strength across the whole fleece while most other entries were tender due to the season,” Mr Shepard said. “It had a uniformity across the whole staple that didn’t show a tightness from the middle of the year, which made it stand out from the other fleeces. “We tested it’s micron at a low 17, it looked and handled very fine.” Mr Shepherd said when the points were added up, they found it surprising that a new entrant scored top points — 85 out of a possible 100 points. “We all asked — where did this fleece come from?,” he said. Ms Reid said the fleece was shorn from a wether at last year’s September shearing. She said it was consistent through the staple profile through its crimp, had ample strength and was very full and had plenty of weight. “Whilst my tenure has ended as a wool producer, I feel incredibly blessed to breed to my preference and back myself that I could do it,” she said. She was a graduate at the University of Melbourne, before working in the wool industry as a classer in Victoria, having a few shearers in the family. “An opportunity to work at the Kylie Poll Merino stud in Ongerup had me move to WA in 2004,” Ms Reid said. “For a decade, I leased a farm and went about producing ultrafine types with an average flock of 15.2 using several WA bloodlines.” “I topped the Fremantle Dyson Jones catalogue for a few years — there is nothing like the feel of Merino fibre.” Mr Shepard said the difference between the top and the bottom fleeces, made it hard to get any other standout — the entry from Ms Reid was a clear winner while many fleeces were tender from the season. He said the first-placed medium wool fleece that scored 83 points and exhibited by local Newdegate farmers Doug and Dani Giles, was a little bit bolder, but strength was good. Mr Giles said the fleece was shorn from a Belmont Park bloodline ewe. “We run a pure 3500 head self-replacing Poll Merino flock and were very pleased to take home our first broad fleece ribbon from Newdegate, our hometown show,” he said.