Wrattenbullie stud's Rod Davies is being fondly remembered as a deep thinker who set incredibly high standards for his sheep and cattle studs.
The vice president of the Australian Poll Dorset Association from Wrattonbully, near Naracoorte, passed away last week after only recently being diagnosed with leukemia.
He had a lifelong love of breeding Poll Dorsets, starting the Wrattenbullie stud at just 12 years of age in 1965 with a few ewes he bought with his pocket money.
One of the stud's biggest highlights was winning supreme Poll Dorset exhibit at the 2018 Royal Adelaide Show and, in more recent years, selling rams into top studs - including Ulandi Park stud at Marrabel - which paid a new stud record of $9500 at Wrattenbullie's 2022 sale.
Despite this success, Rod was always striving to breed a better sheep.
Poll Herefords were his other passion, establishing the stud in 1976.
Wrattenbullie was a long-time vendor at the Naracoorte Poll Hereford multi-vendor sale and then the Diamond bull sale. In recent times bulls were being sold on-farm.
Rod considered one of his greatest accomplishments seeing clients keep coming back to buy their genetics.
Rod was a valued member of the Naracoorte-Hamilton region Poll Dorset sub branch for decades and had been on the Australian Poll Dorset Association board for the past five years.
APDA president Isabele Roberts says Rod will be greatly missed and remembered as a kind, considerate man who gave people his time freely.
"I will miss our conversations. He was always looking at the big picture and seeing how we as a breed can be a big part of the lamb industry long term," she said.
Ms Roberts said Rod was a great lateral thinker and always took the time to listen to what others had to say before forming a position.
"He erred on the conservative side but that is not a negative. If you are looking to make change it is always important to see what has come before and what has worked," she said.
"But he was always mindful of the breed moving forward for its future."
She says there will be a "great big hole" where Rod had organised events through the Naracoorte-Hamilton Poll Dorset sub group, with him always keen to get fellow breeders together and educate people about the lamb industry.
Friend and fellow breeder Alan Schinckel held a joint ram sale with Rod for 37 years until Leenala's dispersal in 2017, which enabled them to compete with other more well-known studs.
He said Rod had a very good eye for livestock but was always striving for perfection.
"He was the biggest critic of his own sheep, they were never good enough in his eyes but he certainly bred some very good ones," Mr Schinckel said.
Their first few sales were held at Coonawarra but then moved to the Naracoorte Showgrounds where Wrattenbullie still holds its annual ram sale.
In 2017 both were awarded life membership of the Naracoorte Pastoral and Agricultural Society.
Rod joined the committee in 1984 and was president in the early 2000s, steering the society through some tumultuous times when it was financially struggling.
He also helped improve the facilities in the sheep pavilion, upgrading the grandstands and the pens.
Mr Schinckel also remembers Rod being a driving force behind the first national Poll Dorset conference held at Hamilton, Vic in 2009.
"He could be a bit conservative but on the other hand he came up with some great ideas," he said.
"He was a very straight and honest person and if he said he would do something he would follow it through."
Rod's son Brad said his father loved being out in the paddocks with his sheep and cattle and had a great passion for breeding livestock.
"Every time Mum and Dad went away, they would always have to fit in a ram sale. They even went to the Dorset Fair on their honeymoon," he said.
Brad said Rod was also a great judge of livestock, having judging at the Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth Royal Shows as well as Hamilton Sheepvention in Vic and the 2022 NSW Dorset Championships at Cowra.
"He was definitely the harshest critic of his own sheep,constantly telling people what he didn't like about the animal," he said.
"But in the last few years, he really felt like he was getting somewhere and finally selling to some top studs and getting a consistent line up of animals for sale."
