GREATER Shepparton Secondary College remains undefeated in the Victorian Schools Merino Wether Challenge.

The college has won the challenge for the third consecutive time at the third annual event at Clunes in Victoria.

The Shepparton team won the Fox & Lillie grand champion award with a carcase value of $435.67 for six wethers for a six month shearing, including an 89kg wether with 6.5mm of fat and 46mm eye muscle depth as a lamb/hogget.

About 150 students and teachers from 14 schools across Victoria cared for six Merino wethers from Kerrilyn Merino Stud, Dunluce for six months leading up to judging on 25 August.

Australian Wool Innovation said the program provides students with an immersive learning experience of the sheep and wool industry, building foundational skills of animal husbandry, nutrition and meat production.  Each wether was eye muscle scanned and assessed for carcase traits, micron tested, shorn and its fleece was valued.

Students also presented their sheep for the Best Presented Group award. Following the event, the wethers are processed by Thomas Foods International at Stawell, with the support of Elders, allowing carcase results to form part of the overall competition assessment.

The reserve grand champion Manangatang P-12 College team.

The Manangatang P-12 College entered the reserve grand champion wether team.  The team’s sheep took out the Highest Value Fleece section, averaging $79.36. This included a 5.3kg, 19.3 micron fleece and a 5.8kg 20.9 micron fleece, together valued at $81.85.

AWI said the students also heard about education and career pathways from University of Melbourne – Dookie Campus and Longerenong College, Career Pathways from Fox and Lillie Rural and a session on nutrition and how to feed their wethers next year, from Slingshot/Nutrimax.

The day was also supported by the Australian Sheep Breeders Association, Victorian Stud Merino Sheep Breeders Association , AWI and many other sponsors, schools, teachers and industry.

The schools involved in the 2-026 challenge included Managatang P-12 College, Nhill College, Greater Shepparton Secondary College, Tintern Grammar School (Ringwood), Seymour College, Goroke P-12 College, Ballarat Grammar School, Geelong Grammar School, Salesian College (Sunbury), Assumption College (Kilmore), Rushworth P-12 College, Monivae College (Hamilton), Aitken College (Greenvale) and St Mary MacKillop College (Swan Hill).

AWI said there already plans to make the 2027 Victorian School Merino Wether Challenge bigger and better.

Source – AWI.