August 17.

The Merino Challenge is in honour of the late Peter Westblade, a true visionary, epitomising compassion and devotion to a cause.

He passed away in late 2008.

The merino challenge is a continuation of the merino genetic information gathered from the highly successful Craig Wilson Livestock Wether Trials run at Wagga Wagga, Alectown and Taralga.

Event organiser Craig Wilson from Craig Wilson Livestock, was happy with the turnout.

“It’s been a great response from the sheep producers, we have breeders here from all over the Riverina,” Mr Wilson said.

“These trials are very important to the sheep industry, I have been conducting trials for the past eight years but this is the first attempt to gather individual carcass data.

“The meat trial consists of wethers being in feedlot conditions for the past nine weeks and this is a great opportunity to showcase them to the breeders before they are processed,” he said.

Guest speakers on the day included Terry Mitchell, Livestock Coordinator, Fletchers International; Geoff Duddy, Sheepmeat and Feedlotting Specialist, Industry & Investment and; Sally Martin and Geoff Casburn, Sheep and Wool Officers with Industry and Investment.

Two different trials are conducted under the merino challenge.

The first is a meat trial which is being held in Collingullie.

The second is a wool trial held at the Temora Research station with wool traits being assessed.

Sally Martin, an Industry and Investment Wool Officer from Young, said the opportunities that these trials can bring to producers are very exciting.

“These trials are very important to the future of superior genetics in future breeding programs,” Ms Martin said.

“We are body weighing the wethers every two weeks and assessing growth rate and skin.

“Once the wethers have been slaughtered we will assess the carcass weight, fat score, eye muscle area and PH and colour,” she said.