The Sydney Royal Easter Show has been a huge success for a handful of locals this year, with several receiving excellent results in their selected showing categories.
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Particularly excited about their big wins were Young poultry hobbyists, Michael McGrath and Rebecca Johnstone, who took out eight wins in total at the annual show held in Sydney for two weeks over the Easter long weekend.
Their wins included Champion Standard Heavy Breeding Team; Champion Standard Breeding Team; Champion Standard Langshan Australian, Black; Champion Standard Langshan; Best Standard, soft feather, heavy, female; Best Bantam, Old English Game, Blue Dunn, female; Best Standard Australian Game, Black-Red, male and Best Standard Silkie, Partridge, male.
Together the duo entered a combination of 130 chooks and ducks into the show, which – unknown to the regular non-poultry orientated person - required plenty of preparation.
All of the 130 entries were washed, bathed, trimmed and in top order before they headed to Sydney, where for the following two days they were placed into their pens and prepared for judging.
To the couple’s surprise, their treasured Australian Langshan pullet was named Champion of its Breed, and furthermore, took out the Best Heavy Standard Soft Feather Female.
Another of Michael and Rebecca’s pullets placed fifth in this category.
“We’ve won Bird of Show at smaller shows, but
nothing quite as big as this,” Rebecca said.
“This was a big thing for us to win at Sydney,” Michael added.
Michael went on to explain that with every breed there is a breed standard, with his bird fitting the standard the closest than the rest of the fowls in the competition.
“They need an up-slanting backline, and be ‘V’ shaped all over,” Michael said. “Colour – a nice beetle green, and a pullet should have black legs and be in good condition.”
Michael and Rebecca – who between them have spent 57 years competing - participate in around 10 poultry shows per year, ranging from specialised shows of a particular breed, to open shows. But their recent win has certainly been the highlight.
“I felt the time and effort into breeding the fowl and getting it to its best meant we’d done everything right to get that bird to where she got to,” Michael said. “And we felt it to be an honour to be in the company that we were in at the show.”
Michael and Rebecca weren’t the only ones doing the right thing, with several others from Young also taking out placings in their chosen categories.
Lisa Pontin was awarded Best of Breed with her Maremma dog, Sam Reynolds was awarded Junior Champion Murray Grey female, and Jake Varena placed second and third with his Old English Game Bantams in poultry, as well as first place Handler, and seventh in Judging with Angora goats.
