FOR the third time in the past four years, the WAMMCO State Carcase Competition trophy has been won by the Rockdale Prime SAMM stud, Dumbleyung, whose line of 104 ewe and wether lambs scored the top of 2714 points.
Accepting the trophy last week on behalf of the Edwards family, Mark Edwards said they were very happy with the result and felt lucky to win as the competition was extremely close this year with only 21 points separating Rockdale and second placegetter Jon Ward, also from Dumbleyung.
Mark said they were also pleased that Jon also did well as the Ward family were valued clients of Rockdale.
The winning line was Rockdale's only entry for the competition, and Mark said they originally had 250 Prime SAMM ewe and wether lambs ready at the same time, but drafted only 104 of the heaviest of them for the WAMMCO competition.
About half of the consignment were cull stud lambs, and all of them had come off wheat stubble and spent just over two weeks in the feedlot before being sent to WAMMCO.
Winning the trophy and $4000 cash plus product donated by Superior Livestock Services was an added bonus for the Edwards family, as Rockdale is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
The WAMMCO competition is Australia's richest lamb carcase competition, with a record $17,000 prize pool over three categories: overall heavyweight, tradeweight and an above 300 head consignment, the latter two being new categories created for the 2009-10 competition.
WAMMCO supply development manager Rob Davidson ran through a comprehensive summary of the results to a full room of producers, with entries received from all over WA.
A total of 17,249 lambs were evaluated from 76 entries, from 64 WAMMCO members, with 51 per cent of the lambs coming from the Great Southern, 15pc from the south east Wheatbelt and 11pc from the northern Wheatbelt.
Even though the number of entries was noticeably down on last year's high of 102, the standard remained impressive and Mr Davidson reminded people that WAMMCO rewards growers who put their lambs over the scales.
This year's competition saw widespread interest ranging from producers from the Walkaway, Mingenew, Ballidu and Beacon areas who were up against southern producers from Esperance, Narrikup, Manjimup and Donnybrook, with a diverse range of genetics being evaluated from 10 terminal sires and nine maternal lines.
Mr Davidson said Poll Dorsets were the most nuerous terminal sires, with 45pc of entries using the breed, up from 39pc last year, followed by an equal second with Prime SAMMs and White Suffolk terminal sires each accounting for 17pc of entries.
The dam of choice was still Merinos which accounted for 66pc of the entries, while 34pc used first cross or composites.
Mr Davidson explained that 43pc of the consignments achieved over 100pc lamb marking and of those entries 57pc used Merinos.
He added that as a result, producers didn't necessarily have to move away from the Merino breed to achieve high lambing percentages but it all came down to the bloodlines used and on-farm nutritional management.
The competition ran from September 7, 2009, to February 26, 2010, with requirements including a minimum consignment of 100 crossbred lambs, and a $50 entry fee.
Across the board, the average carcase weight was 23.2 kilograms and average fat score was 2.60, the average carcase yield was 48.7pc.
This year's lambs were compared against the same weight and fat grid of the past three years of competition, plus the new WAMMCO select lean meat yield grid.
Rockdale's winning line presented an average carcase weight of 25.22kg, a 2.25 fat score, a WAMMCO Select lean meat yield of 32.11pc and 81.7pc of the carcases received bonus points for their total of 2714.
In second place overall with only 21 points separating the two was the Ward family's entry, which was a line of 109 Poll Dorset-White Suffolk-Merino-F1 Prime SAMMs that also achieved impressive figures.
Logging an average carcase weight of 25.22kg, a 2.37 fat score, a WAMMCO Select lean meat yield of 31.72pc and 76.85pc of carcases received bonus points for the Wards to achieve a total score of 2693.
Mr Ward won $1500 cash plus product donated by Milne Feeds for his outstanding line of lambs.
In third place overall were Katanning locals Bob O'Toole and Richard Bessell-Browne, O'Toole & Bessell-Browne, with their larger line of composite lambs, 221 Suffolk-Merino-East Friesian-Prime SAMM lambs going over the scales.
Averaging a 24.45kg carcase weight, a 2.38 fat score, 32.14pc WAMMCO Select lean meat yield and 79.09pc of the carcases gaining bonus points, O'Toole & Bessell-Browne achieved 2460.16 competition points in total.
For third place they received $1000 cash plus product donated by Superior Livestock Services.
In the over 300 lamb consignment category, Craig McAndrew, CP & SR McAndrew, Yelbeni, took out the first place honours with his 413 Poll Dorset-Merinos averaging 24.8kg for carcase weight, a 2.63 fat score and a total of 2307 points.
Second place went to Rob and Jamie Blight, RE Blight & Co, Beverley, with a line of 319 Poll Dorset-Merinos with an average carcase weight of 27.28kg, 2.91 fat score and 2248 total points, while in third place was Ross Taylor, RW & PM Taylor, Tiarri Prime SAMM stud, Lake Grace, with a line of 340 Prime SAMMs which achieved an average carcase weight of 26.44kg, 2.92 fat score and 2235 total competition points.
First place in the trade weight category was Todd, Jodie and Mick Quinlivan, Quintarra Farms & Prime SAMM stud, Esperance, for their 107 Prime SAMM lambs, which recorded a 20.91kg average carcase weight, 2.08 fat score and 1824 total competition points.
In second place was Kevin and Sharlene Powell, KR & SK Powell, Katanning, with a line of 464 Prime SAMM-Merino lambs at an average carcase weight of 20.78kg, 2.07 fat score to achieve a total of 1801 points, while a line of 274 Prime SAMMs with a 20.83kg average carcase weight, 2.4 fat score and 1596 total competition points from Alan and Sandy Forbes, AW & SC Forbes, Royston Prime SAMM stud, Jerramungup, finished in third place.
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