TOP SIRE 2026–2027 HALL OF FAME The AMSEA trials found that for every Riverina bloodline that had a team in both trials, those who had purposefully selected their team cut 2kg more on average than the random draft method and were generally a micron finer. The trial committee also held a ram weaner competition. Each stud entered two ram lambs which were visually judged as a pair then weighed, shorn, fleece weighed and microned. This competition became one of the country’s first objective measurement classes. Graham’s vast knowledge of sheep skin type, the role of sheep classers and the environmental effects on breeding developed over many years. With more stud breeders starting to use Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) with flock breeding values, alongside the emergence of genomics, Graham saw great value in a trial to see how these methods impacted the lifetime performance of sheep. Through the NSW SMBA Technical Committee, Graham proposed a trial for lifetime production, which was backed by fellow committee members on the basis that he do it. With the help of the technical committee over the next four years, they successfully lobbied Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) to create the Merino Lifetime Ewe Project (MLP). AWI contracted AMSEA, which had trial sites in Victoria and New South Wales, and with funding for a lifetime ewe trial approved, the MLP was underway. The trial was designed to have sires of diverse breeding backgrounds, representing most breeding philosophies, AI’d at five sites across Australia. This included Chiswick in the New England region (primarily for fine wools), Balmoral in the Western Districts of Victoria, Pingelly in Western Australia, Merinolink at Temora and the Macquarie site at Trangie. Sires were AI’d in the hope of getting 30 to 50 progeny per sire, with link sires used over multiple sites to ascertain differences between sites. Professional classers would be appointed, with their classing grades to be compared against measured performance. Sires with ASBV progeny would also be measured against lifetime performance. Genomic predictions were also proposed to be tested, but due to intellectual property agreements not being finalised with industry bodies, these were not completed with the early data until after the trial concluded. A significant number of the sire entrants came from ram breeders already participating in AMSEA. To enhance this process, AWI assembled a group of stud breeders to become the Sire Advisory Group, with Graham as a representative. The group aimed to bring in sires of high fleece weight and high body weight as well as those that had been widely used in the industry to provide a diverse selection of sires from all breeding philosophies. The Industry Steering Committee (ISC) for this sire trial represented all segments of the Merino industry, with SMBA councillors Matthew Coddington and Drew Chapman. As the “father of the MLP”, Graham maintained a significant role in the trial, seeking to gather valuable information for the stud and commercial Merino industries. Within the MLP framework, Graham instigated what has become known as the Wells trial, which saw classers at the first classing pick the top three sheep of each sire’s progeny. The idea was to road test genomics by comparing the genomic predictions for the top progeny, then ranking the remaining progeny through their grades in comparison to measured performance. The classers, with no measurement figures, did an excellent job of grading the progeny. The MLP trial ran over a ten-year period and has now been completed with the analysis of the trial to be released in late 2026. Plenty of success for One Oak– Graham and Mary with ribbons and trophies won at the 2012 Adelaide Royal. – 50 –
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