ONE of Australia's biggest and most influential sheep meat and wool producers will make his first appearance at the Make Smoking History Wagin Woolorama in 2020, this Friday and Saturday.
Roger Fletcher, who heads the family owned Fletcher International, has stepped to the fore and offered late sponsorship to the 2020 Woolorama which has been gratefully accepted by the organising committee.
Mr Fletcher will officially open the show on Thursday evening and will be a guest speaker in the Merino ring on the Friday.
In a show that is brimming with long-term sponsors the committee had no trouble finding an appropriate section to foster.
It will go to the shearing competition, now known as the Fletcher International Shearing and Wool Handling Competition.
Shearing and wool handling section head steward Huia Barlow, a former gun shearer on the New Zealand circuit, said he was excited to have the company on board, especially as Mr Fletcher had been a shearer in his earlier days.
It is a timely move on the company's behalf with sheep numbers plummeting due to drought and bushfires and an exodus of breeding stock expected from Western Australia when conditions on the eastern seaboard improve.
With meatworks on both sides of Australia, the Fletcher family will be keen to encourage sheep producers to maintain and even increase their ewe numbers and he can be expected to express his strong views on current industry events.
The company's Narrikup abattoir production manager Justin Cuthbert said for the first time they would staff a commercial stand displaying its extensive market destinations and the products it exported.
The Narrikup facility employs 550 local workers - although the number fluctuates seasonally.
Mr Barlow said the sponsorship was welcome and timely.
This year the winner of the open clean shear will pocket $600 but, for many, the competition will be as much about beating champion shearer Damien Boyle who has proven almost unbeatable in the open section.
The shearing will start at 8am on Saturday and an expected field of more than 60 will contest classes for open, senior, intermediate, novice and under 21-year-old shearers.
In addition, about 50 wool handlers will compete in open, intermediate and novice classes.
Competitors and visitors should note there will be no speed shearing this year and instead the wool handling classes will be held on Friday with the clean shear on Saturday.
