North Canterbury farmers Jim and Ramona Sidey for the second year in row won supreme champion wool sheep at the Canterbury A&P Show two weeks ago, and said the two rams which had brought them show success had been sold to a Uruguay buyer.
While he would not disclose the price tag, Mr Sidey said they got ''a good price'' and he had ''plenty of progeny'' from the two rams to breed from.
He said winning supreme champion wool sheep two years in a row was ''pretty special. It's awesome. I never thought that would happen again for a while''.
It was the fifth time he had won supreme champion wool sheep.
''There is no secret. The sheep do it themselves. It really comes back to genetics. I am the fifth generation breeding Corriedales.''
It was a successful show for the Sideys, with last year's winning ram picking up reserve champion Corriedale ram, while they also won champion Corriedale ewe and champion of champions wool breeds pair with their top ram and ewe.
The Sideys ran 330ha at Waikari, northwest of Amberley, with 800 stud and 200 commercial Corriedale ewes, 180 beef cattle, and they graze dairy cows.
They sold about 170 rams each year to commercial farmers from Marlborough to North Otago and had previously sold rams to Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Australia.
Mr Sidey's great-great-grandfather, James Little, is believed to have been the original Corriedale breeder and started out while managing Corriedale Station in North Otago in the 1860s. Little later moved to Hawarden and ''he entered in a few Canterbury shows himself''.
The family Corriedale sheep bloodline was also carried on today by Mr Sidey's uncle, 'Doc' Sidey, and his cousins, Andy Sidey and Mark Sidey, who farmed in the Hawarden and Waikari areas.
- David Hill