It only takes one conversation to tell that eight-year-old Dustin Mackrill was born to be a sheep breeder.

Dustin may be young, but he's already talking about carcass yield, breed history and udder development like a seasoned stud master.

He's also got the sheep to back it up.

The Murchison Primary School Grade 2 student brought his pair of young Texel ewes, Texer and Texie, in for show-and-tell last Wednesday, using the visit to launch what he hopes will become his own stud.

"I'm going to start my own Texel stud and show my sheep," Dustin said to his classmates, giving an impressive speech while standing in the tray of the family trailer, parked on the school basketball court, a beanie pulled down against the winter fog.

Eventually, he wants that stud to run 200 head of sheep.

Dustin and his family live just outside Murchison, with a main farm near Avenel where they breed mostly Merino-cross and trade Texels.

He has already raised pet lambs on the family farm, feeding them every morning before school, overalls pulled on to keep his uniform clean.

He picked up Texer and Texie in the first week of the school holidays, on an eight-hour round trip to Mertex stud, roughly an hour from Donald in Victoria's Wimmera.

One ewe was a present for his eighth birthday, on June 20. He paid for the other himself, out of money he's saved from birthdays and odd jobs.

Texer is carrying twins and is close to lambing, with an udder already developing.

Texie is carrying a single lamb, due in four to six weeks.

Both sheep have the broad head typical of the breed, Dustin explained, pointing out the "big bump" that gives Texel lambs their notoriously tough entrances into the world.

He would know too, having spent time over the past school holidays learning to help ewes when a lamb gets stuck.

"They can get stuck because they've got a big head," he said.

"That's why we have to lamb them sometimes."

Dustin knows his breed history too, explaining to his classmates that the first Texels were bred in Australia in 1993, and that the breed originated on the island of Texel, off the Netherlands.

They're a meat breed, prized for a high-yielding carcass, with a smaller frame that makes them easier to handle than some others.

Dustin's ewes eat hay and grain, with a two-kilogram salt lick to round things out.

Among his classmates, reactions ranged from fascinated to faintly nervous. One boy admitted he'd never been close to a sheep before and felt a little scared.

Dustin had a ready answer.

"Sheep are way more scared of a person," he said.

Dustin plans to show his own sheep, beginning to develop a stud and start breeding them.

He's hoping to take some to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show next year, having recently been as a spectator.

When asked what he likes about it all, his answer was straightforward.

"I can play with them. I can feed them. I can tame them."

As for the stud name? He's still working on it.

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Saturday, 25th January 2031

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