Mr Franks said that the thing that pleased him most this year was the fact that three schools, from the North, North-West and South, had sent teams.

"We had junior handlers and sheep from Yolla, Cressy and Bridgewater," a delighted Mr Franks said.

"There were about 25 kids in the junior handler competition and they had a really good line up of sheep to lead — it was a really tough competition and sheep quality was right up there."

Leah Beamish and Emma Jones were part of the seven-strong Yolla District High School team who went along with 15 sheep, quite a few mums and dads and agricultural studies co-ordinator John Lehman.

Mr Lehman said that the success of this year's show would be measured in the relationships it developed with the students and teachers from Cressy and Bridgewater.

"We had a very young team and the other two schools took on a mentoring role for our youngsters," he said.

"We had a lot of comments from experienced breeders about how well we presented our animals and how competitive they were.

"I think we are going to be a breeder to be recognised in future shows because we have some pretty handy genetics."

Mr Franks said that overall numbers were on a par with previous years, or a little better, with about 100 sheep on show.

"But we were a little down on variety — we didn't have any woolly breeds this year, which was a bit disappointing," he said.

"The other thing which was really popular this year was the old-time shearing demonstration — he'd do most of a sheep with an old Lister motor-powered hand set and finish them off with the hand shears.

"People love to see that sort of thing."