IT was a clean sweep of the major prizes by a Charolais stalwart on Friday at the Royal Adelaide Show, with Caithness stud, Mount Barker, awarded grand champion female, grand champion bull and supreme exhibit.
It capped off a special show for stud principal Shirley Barker, who had become the first South Australian to receive life membership from the Charolais Society earlier in the show.
A "beautiful" heifer that judge Nicole Nicholls, Tookawhile stud, Rukenvale, NSW, found hard to fault was sashed with the supreme exhibit broad ribbon.
Caithness Philippa T54E, sired by Rosedale Quantum and out of Caithness Philippa P87E, won the cow or heifer, 16 months or under 18 months class before being named junior champion female, grand champion female and finally supreme exhibit.
Ms Barker was thrilled with her stud's performance and said it was easy to see why the judge had picked Philippa as the best animal.
"Her backline and udder placement is great, she works beautifully and shows every sign of being a top dam later on," she said.
Caithness also secured the grand champion bull title, with Caithness Topman T35E.
Hailing from the 16 month and under 18 months class, Topman weighed in at 618 kilograms, and boasted measurements of 115 square centimetres for eye muscle area, 7cm for rib fat and a 7cm P8 figure.
It was also sired by Rosedale Quantum and out of the Caithness Alice L93E dam.
Judge Nicholls said cattle needed to be able to perform, be practical and be profitable, and the bull was all of those things.
"He is a real sire and will be able to go out and do the job once he's matured a fraction more," she said.
"He moves well, he's free, he's good in the testicular department and he's going to have that frame and muscling that we look for."
Caithness rounded out the day with a win in the breeders' group.
While a relatively small display of cattle with 5 exhibitors, judge Nicholls commended the breeders by saying South Australians breed Charolais really well and it was a good lineup to judge.
"It's hard to judge when there's only a small number of animals, but I've been very lucky to have some beautiful animals and it makes my job so much easier," she said.
Other breeders to receive class and reserve champion ribbons included Alizah, Thomas and Eleni Fogden, Loxton, with Boulview Tori.
Out of Boulview Kaylee BPBK10E and sired by Chenu Profile RLKP29E, the heifer won the 8 months and under 14 months class and was named reserve junior champion female.
The reserve junior champion bull was awarded to Arabar Livestock for Arabar Thunder Struck T12.
The 558kg bull was sired by Palgrove Quinella Q1794 and out of Arabar Pearl P7, with an EMA measure of 112sqcm, a rib fat of 7mm and P8 of 7mm.
