IT WAS close, but the McArdle family, Taljar stud, Kangaroo Island, weighed-in the heaviest Polwarth ram of all time at Royal Adelaide: a whopping 150 kilograms.
'Tiny Tim' was named the grand champion ram by judge Tom Ashby, North Ashrose stud, Gulnare, because of his tremendous carcase and pure fleece.
"He has wonderful character in his wool, a tremendous chest on him and he carries his wool right down underneath him," he said. "He also has very good purity up front with a wonderful, strong muzzle and really good fleece characteristics."
Mr Ashby was pleased with the uniformity of all the Taljar sheep, and particularly the champion ewe.
"The conformation on the champion ewe was outstanding - topline and everything was really good and her fleece had the most quality of all the ewes in the line-up," he said.
Sole exhibitor Taljar's Talisa, Jared, David and Lyn McArdle were extremely proud of Tiny Tim and his 42 millimetre eye muscle depth, 10mm fat score and 23 micron fleece.
"We took him to Bendigo and he didn't quite make that weight then," Ms McArdle said. "We didn't think he was going to get any bigger but we got him weighed yesterday and he topped it."
* Full report in Stock Journal, September 11, 2014 issue.
