BACK in the Royal Melbourne show ring for the first time since his Kensal Limousin, Deniliquin, stud was dispersed in 2007, Michael O’Sullivan, now of Tamborine, Queensland, ‘jumped the fence’ to take on the role of judge at this year’s Limousin competition.

While he said that his new role had a “little bit less pressure”, Mr O’Sullivan had the hard task of wading through the tough competition, some former inmates of his Kensal stud.

Before announcing senior champion cow he called Lachlan Day, Allendale, Bordertown, SA, into the ring to back his decision to award Kensal Black Fancy with grand champion female ribbon.

Sold by Mr O’Sullivan to Sue Griffiths, Beckenham, Malmsbury, before the dispersal of his stud, she had twice been calved since moving to Victoria and it was this fact that set her apart from the competition, according to Mr O’Sullivan.

“This cow has done everything right, she’s done it and can prove herself,” Mr O’Sullivan said in reference to her calf at foot.

Owner Mrs Griffiths was also successful in some of the younger female classes.

Competition was fierce between the bull entrants, with Mr O’Sullivan caught between a young and old bull for the grand champion ribbon.

He declared senior bull champion, Froghollow Bradman, bred by J O’Brien, Bungaree, to be a fine example of the breed, “lovely spine, a really good testicle”, but it was the young bull calf off Hayley Sheehan’s Waterford, Latrobe property in Tasmania that came out trumps with champion bull ribbon and later, supreme exhibit.

Declaring Waterford Native to Australia to be “what the breed is all about”, Mr O’Sullivan chose the bull for “volume, strength of spine, testicles”, while also noting its ability to move: “it gets around sound as sound”.

Noting that the bull may have been slightly overdone on “too many icecreams”, Mr O’Sullivan said he just couldn’t go past him.

“He was a really good bull and I think we’ll see a lot more of him”.

Already familiar to the show ring, the young bull, just on one year old, was shown last year as a calf on the Limousin supreme exhibit, another from Ms Sheehan’s stable.

At just over 600 kilograms, the bull had an eye muscle area of 112 centimetres square and was out of a sire new to Australia, EXLR Native, through artificial insemination.

Sourced from Deer Valley Farm, Tennessee, Ms Sheehan said she had worked at the American farm and had been lucky enough to be set up with genetics and bulls that had already worked at their stud.