Hill set on Horsham show
Young award-winning Wimmera producer Matt Hill will look to agricultural shows closer to home as a chance to bounce back from a series of sheep show cancellations.
The St Helens Plains sheep farmer, 28, was among hundreds of contestants whose plans to compete in the annual Australian Sheep and Wool Show were derailed due to Victoria’s fifth COVID-19 lockdown.
Mr Hill had been busy preparing to place his beloved Hampshire Down lambs up against the ‘best of best’ sheep breeders in the country before the cancellation of the July 16 to 18 event.
“I was there on the Thursday and got there early like I normally do to get a good car park to miss the big rush,” he said.
“I was there for the majority of the day, getting the sheep ready, trimmed, settled, scanned and weighed.
“Then it got called off. So, I grabbed a few pizzas with a couple of friends who I hadn’t seen for a while, sat on the grandstand and caught up, before we all packed our stuff and went home.”
The young farmer follows the show circuit each year, attending events in Melbourne, Sydney, Bendigo and Hamilton.
His sheep have won several awards, including champion ram and ram of the year awards at Royal Melbourne Show in 2019.
Mr Hill said it was disappointing to see a long list of shows cancelled due to the pandemic.
“It hasn’t been a great year for sheep shows,” he said.
“I went to Sydney in April and I
must have only just snuck that one in – it was one of my more successful shows.
“Other than that, I hadn’t been to another sheep show for a long time.”
Despite the cancellation, Mr Hill remains hopeful of seeing a return to sheep shows, but this time, a little closer to home.
He said he had the Horsham agricultural show in his sights in late September, but remained cautiously optimistic about Royal Melbourne
Show in the same month. “I’m a bit keener for Horsham than Melbourne at the moment,” he said.
“I can see a regional show happening before one of the larger city shows due to the virus.
“I also think interest in the Horsham show will be even greater this year than previous ones, just because producers have been preparing their rams and ewes and not been able to show them.”
Mr Hill, a sixth-generation farmer, has a long history of merino sheep breeding.
He said he was particularly proud of his Hampshire Down lambs, which he had invested in from a young age.
“The lambs are among my top breeding ewes,” he said.
“The Hampshire Down are really trending at the moment because of the eating quality, with all the marbling through the meat.”