The 157th North Otago show included a Southdown feature show in memory of Mr McClea who died in May last year.
He and his wife Pam had run their Charleston Southdown stud at their sheep and cropping farm at Kakanui.
When he retired from farming in 2002, Mr McClea’s dispersal sale at the showgrounds attracted buyers from across New Zealand. Three of the ewes equalled the record Southdown price of $1800.
Mr McClea’s service to the association, which began in 1980, was acknowledged with life membership in 2007.
While helping with the trade space, the plough he helped design for burying electric cables for powered sites was dubbed the ‘‘Davy Dig’’.
‘‘He was a good guy.’’
The two had bought rams from each other over the years, Mr Medlicott said.
He believed the standard of sheep at the show was better than he had seen in Oamaru for a while.
‘‘Everything’s pretty good with the sheep industry at the moment.’’
And Maheno Suffolk breeder Kerry Dwyer, who won the Meat Cup, was ‘‘doing a great job to keep the meat breed going’’.
Young people should show their livestock as a learning process, looking at other people’s breeds to compare what they were doing and noting what they needed to do to reach those standards, Mr Gordon said.
‘‘There are some very good sheep here — great examples of the respective breeds. They’re a credit to you guys who have stuck at it.
‘‘We’ve got encourage young breeders ... us old buggers have got to go out of our way to encourage these young buggers on board.’’
-By Sally Brooker
