Lancefield Suffolk breeder Andrew Lakin will field 14 sheep at the 175th Melbourne Royal Show this year.

SUFFOLKS will be the feature sheep breed at the 175th Melbourne Royal Show in late September.

And Lancefield breeder Andrew Lakin is particularly excited to showcase the breed – and hopefully back up his 2022 Melbourne Royal success, when his ewe with two lambs took out supreme Suffolk of the show.

The 27 year-old has been attending Melbourne Royal since before he could walk, watching on from the pram as his parents exhibited their Clydesdales.

He has been showing sheep at Melbourne since he was eight, but with the 175th year celebrations and Suffolks taking centre stage, will be a particularly special event for the Suffolk breeder.

“I’m extremely keen for Suffolks to be featured, personally it’s my first show showing Suffolks when they’re a feature breed so I’m really looking forward to it.

“Suffolks are a really hardy breed, adaptable to any condition, great on the prime lamb side of things and they yield exceptionally well, so I’m looking forward to sharing them with the public,” Andrew said.

Breeders will vie for more than $25,000 in cash, prizes and trophies in the Melbourne Royal sheep classes. Entries are now open for the Melbourne Royal sheep competition.

Finley High School took out the coveted interbreed champion ram at last year’s show and will be returning this year after a strong performance at the recent NSW Poll Dorset Championships in Cowra, NSW where they won reserve champion ewe.

Finley agriculture teacher Robyn O’Leary said the school stud has been operating for 21 years and it’s always great to benchmark against the bigger studs.

“So we’re so certainly looking forward to the Melbourne Royal Show.”

Entries for the Melbourne Royal Sheep Competition close Thursday, August 10.

For more information about the competition visit https://www.melbourneroyal.com.au/sheep/