TOP SIRE 2026–2027 INDUSTRY NEWS COMMERCIAL PRODUCERS SEE VALUE IN BOOKHAM WETHER TRIALS The Bookham Agricultural Bureau’s wether trial has been running for more than 50 years, providing valuable feedback to local producers. In April 2026, trial convenors wrapped up the final shearing of their most recent four-year trial. Teams of ten wethers were randomly drafted at each entrant’s property before being delivered to “Deepwater”, Bookham, where they were hosted by Doug and Helena Painting and run as a commercial wether flock across 700 hectares of grazing country. Phil Graham, Graham Advisory, Yass, has helped run wether trials with Bookham Agricultural Bureau for almost 40 years and said trials such as this helped give commercial producers a solid benchmark on the dollar returns from their sheep compared to others in the industry. “These trials have been run by commercial producers because they see value in the data it provides them in making a decision about the sheep genetics they use,” he said. “The trial always runs for four years because the producers want to see the longer-term productivity which resembles their ewe flocks.” There were 35 teams in the trial, including two teams from registered Merino studs, which came from the local district and as far away as the Monaro region. The trial started in 2023, which marked the 50-year anniversary of the wether trial. A natural disaster threatened to derail the benchmark testing in the first year when flooding resulted in the loss of some of the trial sheep and some teams finished the trial with less than half their starting wethers. The final results were divided into three categories: teams with seven or more wethers, teams with less than seven and stud teams. The average shearing income per animal was calculated from each annual shearing during the trial and combined with an average carcass income per head, based on an estimated carcass weight at the end of the trial. Tony Armour, Glenrock Partnership, Bookham, topped the commercial category with $521.44 in total income and also the highest total wool income over the trail’s four years at $341.59. Tony has participated in the Bookham trial since the 1980s and recently retired from running 3000 superfine Merino ewes. Closely behind was Kingslea Partnership, Bookham, which returned $520.69 in total income and a total wool income of $341.34, with only four of their wether team remaining at the conclusion of the trial. The trial averaged $301.13 per head for wool income and $173.94 per head for carcass, giving a total income average of $475.08 per head for the four-year trial. Phil said the advantage of wether trials like Bookham Agricultural Bureau’s was that all stock were run under the same conditions. “The differences in the final body weight were not as large as producers expected,” he said. “Teams that come from areas to the west of Bookham are the biggest at the start due to an age advantage, but they usually end up around the trial average for body weight by the end.” He explained that the final results showed a variation between teams of $105 per head for wool income and $44 per head for carcass income. “Teams that decided on increasing carcass value and letting wool income drop had lower income as the carcass value could not offset the income lost over the four shearing events,” he said. “It’s very simple – you get one carcass value and four to five fleece values in their lifetime.” or more wethers, teams with less than seven and stud teams. – 15 –
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