Peter Foley is the Merino head steward at the 2023 Wagin Woolorama

His years in the job have not prepared him, nor his sizeable team of helpers, for a year that may be a turning point for the future of WA's biggest sheep show.

After the 2021 Wagin Woolorama, major exhibitor Angenup stud, Kojonup, said it would no longer be exhibiting in shows and last year the devastating fires around Corrigin destroyed another high-profile stud Claypans.

Then the event was cancelled at the last minute last year.

"It has all been a bit concerning," Mr Foley said.

"As the State sheep show, exhibitors go to much effort to breed, select and prepare the ewes and rams for showing and it was disappointing for them to get their sheep ready only to have it cancelled.

"There was a flow-on to other competitions such as the joint Wagin Woolorama/Perth Royal Show Merino Exhibitor of the Year and the selection of an Australian Sheep and Wool Show representative for the Bendigo, Victoria, event.

"We had to work out what was to happen with these events but it all worked well because it was taken out of our hands.

"The Stud Merino Breeders (Association) is in control of these decisions and what we do, and we work under their parameters.

"We will be just happy to have a show and get everything back up to speed again.

"To exhibit any animal in an event like this is a process that starts two years earlier and COVID has been around for a couple years so we may see its effect on the industry this year."

Mr Foley said it had affected people differently and would be interesting to see how many exhibitors and the number of exhibits they would bring to the show.

He said he couldn't estimate how many entries might come forward but from contact he has had with some of the exhibitors, he is expecting 180-210 animals, which is about on average in recent years.

What hasn't changed is the number of classes - which remains at 51 - the main awards or the generosity of the sponsors.

Mr Foley said all sponsors were back on board and a new sponsor Broomehill Stockfeeds had joined the list offering product prizes - "and tonnes of it".

While every stud has a great wish to win the supreme grand champion of the show, the prestige of the group classes with their huge silver trophies signifies the depth of breeding and evenness in a stud.

Two of the oldest trophies are the H Biggin Memorial class for two Merino rams and two Merino ewes and the TR Murdoch Cup for a group of three Poll Merino rams.

The latter was donated by Malcolm and the late Yvonne Edward in memory of Ray Murdoch, founder of their Belmont Park stud, Wagin.

At its peak in the late 1980s, the Wagin district boasted about 15 active Merino studs and, as a Wesfarmers stock agent, Mr Foley recalled 11 of them held on-property ram sales.

In addition, there were two annual Wagin multi-vendor sales.

Today, in a testament to the ever-changing sheep industry, Wagin is listed in the WA Stud Merino Breeders' Association flock register as having just four studs - and only two of them are active and hold ram sales.

Belmont Park is easily the oldest, biggest and the only local stud to exhibit at Wagin Woolorama and has done so continuously since the section gathered momentum in 1979.

Mr Edward was enormously influential in creating the Merino section and knows what is involved in winning the top accolades.

In all his, and now son Raymond's years, they have won the supreme grand champion trophy only once at Wagin but are credited with several supreme championships from the Perth Royal Show.

Today, Mr Edward said numbers were fewer but the breeding was getting better and competition getting stronger.

The exceptionally high standard has been demonstrated by the enormous success WA studs have achieved in recent years at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show, Bendigo.

He said this came from picking from the best genetics Australia had to offer over such a long time.

When asked what the highlight of Wagin Woolorama had been during his lifetime, he said it was watching it grow.

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In the early days Merinos were at the show on a display-only basis.

The former Haddon Rig stud wanted to take sheep to the Woolorama in 1976 and received plenty of good (and free) publicity.

This inspired a few more to go and although there were Merino classes, studs had a display-only option that lasted only for a couple of years before it evolved into WA's State sheep show.

In 1997 when the section was in its hey-day, the medium wool Merino four-tooth class had a line-up of 53 rams and the shed was crammed with a record 534 animals from 60 studs.

Mr Edward said in those days there were about 30 million Merino sheep in WA.

"Today it is about 13m," he said.

He is philosophical about Woolorama's Merino future, saying nothing stayed the same, referring to the use of Australian Sheep Breeding Values (and less on subjective assessment) and the evolving type from purely a wool sheep to a more balanced animal with more emphasis on both wool and carcase attributes.

Pressures like the uncertainty surrounding live export and the imminent introduction of electronic identification ear tags for WA's entire sheep flock would also be major factors in the future that he believes will tip the balance away from sheep.

He is adamant these identification tags should be opposed.

As one of the stud breeders who was out of step with the industry 40 years ago, breeding Poll Merinos rather than horn Merinos, he has proven to be a man of vision.

And for the future, Mr Edward said it was up to Woolorama's young people, saying "they will make the future".