Rural
29 July, 2026
Sheepvention president excited by 2026 offering
LOOKING at his second year and final stint as president of Sheepvention, sheep farmer Darren Schurmann said the state of the industry could not be more different from this time last year for the popular agricultural show, with the wider district surrounding enjoying a great season.
“Overall it's been the polar opposite to last year, to be honest,” he said.
“Across the board there's been great scanning results on the back of a great spring last year – most people scanned huge numbers.
“You also look back at last spring, there was record crop yields, and I think it's a really, really exciting time.”
For the Hamilton Showgrounds hosting the event, unlike last year, the surface has been subject to considerably more rain, but Darren said it was holding up well.
“It's good,” he said.
“We've done a lot of work, obviously, over the years, and it's just got better and better and better.
“We're prepared – we've had two very lean years on wood chips because we didn't need them, but we've got them there if we want them and if we need to do any little jobs with wood chips, we'll make it happen.”
With the Sunday and Monday scheduling, Darren said the first day helped people come with families from longer distances to visit the sheep-minded displays, competitions and stalls.
“The Sunday is a really popular day for people (from) Warrnambool, Mount Gambier, Coleraine, Casterton, Portland, Horsham – those towns that are only an hour and a bit away,” he said.
“You can just see the demographic in the crowd. It's a really good family day, particularly if the weather's nice.
“Even if the weather's average, we've still got a big shed; we don't have those big marquees that used to be a bit blowy, a bit cool.”
He said having Chris Uhlmann for the Peter Schroder Lecture was a great coup but just one of many speakers to listen to at Sheepvention, with the ‘Women in Ag Lunch’ featuring parasitologist Chloe Frank and AWN sheep and wool specialist Millie Austin.
“Another thing (that’s) just actually happened is we've got Adam Giles, who's the CEO of Driza-Bone; he's going to be talking as well,” Darren said.
“He'll be really interesting. So we'll have Driza-Bone there with the store, and they now also own Rossi Boots, and they've got a woollen line ... called Kidman Clothing – he's really keen to talk that up.”
He was thrilled to have the return of the fashion parade and said although the ‘After Dark’ drought relief concert would not be returning (headlined last year by Shannon Noll), this was in some way a reflection of the change of circumstances with the seasons.
“We do like to vary things up,” Darren said.
“We were approached, and we brought the fashion parade back, but we may delve back into a concert one day. I think it's good to change things up and try and have something new each year. The concert was very relevant to what we were all going through last year.
“We did just think about maybe doing something after the fashion parade, but I think being on a Saturday night, we've still got two very busy days coming up after that.
“So we'll let people get home, and we can get home – and be all geared up for the next two very busy days.”
With his term as president nearing its end, he said he’s happy to be handing on the baton to Sierra Park Merino stud farmer Will Crawford once Sheepvention is over, the family name going back to 1870 in Victoria Valley next to the Grampians.
“He’s a lovely young fellow,” Darren said.
“He's sort of stepping up now. We like to mentor and help each other, and so the process has already begun.”
Interested parties can also help with a “very well catered for” volunteer working bee on Wednesday, July 29, – contact the Sheepvention office on 0409 039 086 for more information.