Southdown newcomer sets hopeful scene for breed reboot in SA

Silver Park Southdowns' Montana Haywood began a stud in 2022 after helping her partner show sheep at SA shows.

"I thought wow, this is pretty great and I instantly knew I wanted to get started on this and try something new," she said.

At just 23 years old, Montana has already begun a career working at cattle saleyards and operations, and at the abattoirs.

She also worked in the South East for a while before realising she was dedicated to starting a stud.

"I love working with sheep. There are less injuries and I feel safer than working with cattle," Montana said.

"They are quieter to work with and being a woman, you cannot muscle cattle when you need to check their teeth or health."

This idea to start a sheep stud literally sprung to mind while Montana was showing sheep for Seymour Vale Suffolks & Border Leicesters.

"I thought to myself, I would like to have the feeling of working on something and getting a reward from it," she said.

"I want to see how I can progress with getting the right traits into the sheep and if I have the eye.

"I want to get it correct for bloodlines to essentially win shows and put my knowledge into something."

The stud consists of 15 breeders.

Montana's partner and studbreeder Alan Lintern was instrumental to turning her vision into reality.

"He has helped me with every part of it and he knows what's involved and how to go about it," she said.

"Getting started was the hardest part, once I realised I had to pay a few thousand dollars for a good ram.

"A lot of people still ask me why I chose Southdowns and I never know what to say, other than I just like them and I always have."

Montana rated the carcase length and placid nature of the breed as a bonus.

"They are also not in SA. So, I just wanted to be a bit different," she said.

Montana bought a ram from Shellal stud, Hawkesdale, Vic, to get started and bought 13 ewes in-lamb from Ashtan Park stud, Yarroweyah, Vic.

In the future, Montana hopes to attract more competition on the show circuit and eventually try her luck at interstate shows, particularly in Vic, to see how her breeding aims stack up against the bigger breeders across the border.