For the second year in a row, and only their third time to enter the competition, Peter and Kirsten Fielding, Sunnybrae SAMM stud, Peterborough, have won the champion Prime SAMM fleece with a 1.5-year-old stud ewe.
The winning 21.3-micron fleece scored 65 points out of a possible 100.
It had a greasy fleece weight of 5.2 kilograms, 68 per cent yield, 15pc coefficient of variation and 99.7pc comfort factor.
In the degree of excellence section, the Fieldings scored 10 out of 10 for soundness and their comfort factor scored 9.2 out of a possible 10.
The ewe was sired by a home bred Sunnybrae SAMM ram.
Mr Fielding said over the years he has only sourced the best SAMM genetics around Australia and in 2009 he purchased Western Australian stud Thorton Park outright.
“That included a ram from South Africa that we had been using embryo transfers from,” Mr Fielding said.
At Sunnybrae they run 650 breeding ewes on mainly clay over limestone soil.
Mr Fielding said the SAMMS are suited to the dryer climate.
“They have a terrific conversion to feed ratio, good lean carcase weight and high yielding fleeces.” Mr Fielding said.
Mr Fielding said it has been a “wonderful journey” for the couple since they introduced the breed into their farming operation in 1998.