Judges were surprised by the winner of the 2019 Yass Show fleece competition.
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The interbreed class finds the best fleece overall from the merino, British breed and black and coloured classes and is usually won by a white fleece. This year's winner, however, was a dark grey fleece entered by Anne Barnes of Yass.
The fleece also won champion and reserve champion fleece in the black and coloured class, scoring top points for strength (10/10), character and style.
The grand champion of the merino class and second highest scoring fleece in the interbreed class was entered by Ken Armour of Jerrawa. The fleece was from a housed fine ram and scored top points for strength (10/10), handle, colour, character, style and evenness.
Housed fleeces are generally in better condition as the sheep have been living inside, chief steward of the fleece competition and Yass wool grower Ashley Wilson said.
One of the youngest competitors, Jack Shannon, aged 9, came third in the merino class. The fleece came from his grandfather, Jack Shannon's property 'Marilba' at Bookham and scored well on character, style and handle.
Jack's younger brother, Eddie, aged 5, won a yellow ribbon with 73.5 points for another fleece from their grandfather's property.
All of the entered merino fleeces were from Yass, while the black and coloured fleeces came from as far as Victoria.
The competition was judged by Ben Stace and Cassie Baile from the Australian Wool Network's Goulburn office.
There were 87 entries in total.
Chief steward Mr Wilson said that entry numbers were slightly down on last year due to the dry conditions in the region. However, he said those that did enter demonstrated a good display for the season.
He said the numbers were slightly higher in the black and coloured class, however, there were no entries in the British breed class.