Mid North classer remembered for lasting impact on Merino, Dohne flocks

Article courtesy of ACM (Catherine Miller) Stock Journal​

Respected classer Phil Venning with one of his favourite ewes that in 2008 won the champion superfine fleece at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo, Vic.. It was the most valuable fleece in the entire show at $416. Picture supplied

Respected Clare-based sheep classer Phillip Venning was doing what he loved right up until the end of his life.

After taking ill, he was disappointed to have to relinquish his role as a judge for the shearing competition at Jamestown Show, but even being in hospital did not stop him from entering fleeces.

In a poignant moment for his family, he passed away on show day, October 5 – the same day one of his beloved ewes’ fleeces was awarded the supreme champion fleece.

Phil is being remembered for his considerable impact on many commercial Merino and Dohne flocks, not just in SA but also Vic and NSW, as well as being a recognised shearing judge.

Quality Wool’s Annabel Porter, Nutrien state wool manager Adrian Dewell and Jamestown show wool convenor Bill Blake with Phil’s supreme champion fleece at the 2025 Jamestown Show. Picture Jamestown Show Facebook

Many people also learned the valuable skill of blade shearing attending one of the schools he put on in SA, Vic, NSW and even Qld in the 1990s.

Phil was exposed to the stud industry from childhood, with his parents Les and Dulcie running the Coora Merino stud at Pinnaroo.

There was never any doubt his future lay in the sheep industry, but as one of eight children, inheriting a farm was never an option.

He had to make his own way. After transitioning from the family farm his first job was at Old Cobran stud in the NSW Riverina.

He would commute every weekend from there back to Pinnaroo where his wife Bev – who he had met through Rural Youth – and their daughter Erica and son Tom remained.

In late 1977, Phil accepted a job with WB Ashby & Sons at Gulnare, with the family following for the start of the new school year.

During his four years at Bundaleer, he learned to blade shear rams.

The family also bought a block of land near Booborowie to continue some of the Coora bloodlines when Phil’s parents decided to disband the stud.

The Coora stud was registered in 1979.

In 1982, Phil moved to Barton Hill at Black Springs where he specialised in the care of the rams for sale and began classing some of their commercial clients’ flocks.

During this time, Phil and Bev’s youngest son Jonathan was born.

Moorundie Park stud’s Russell and Pam Davidson, whom Phil and Bev were good friends with, encouraged him to go out on his own classing and approached him to be the stud’s commercial classer after Len Anderson retired.

Phil Venning, Clare, with his extra ultrafine Merino fleece which won the most valuable fleece in the 2014 Australian Fleece Competition at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show. File picture by Catherine Miller

Geoff Davidson said Phil would have classed some flocks for close to 40 years and said he was “very mentally fit and able to blade shear, foot trim or class for extended periods”.

Geoff also has fond memories of several trips to Dubbo Show with Phil in a three-tonne truck with rams from Barton Hill, Old Ashrose and Moorundie Park studs..

When Phil became an independent classer he also took the necessary steps to become an accredited Dohne Assessor.

Dohne and Merino breeder Allen Kelly had a close to five-decade friendship with Phil, which commenced when both were working at Bundaleer.

He said one year Phil classed almost half the stud Dohnes in Australia.

He also classed his Glen Holme flock at Manoora for 16 years and testament to his wise judgement, some of these sheep have risen to the top of productivity evaluation Australia wide.

Allen says Phil was very hard on structural faults in sheep of any breed.

“He liked to see a sheep that would “do well” even in tough conditions, ones that would not just survive, but thrive and reproduce effectively,” he said.

“One of his sayings that was memorable if he was classing a ewe out was this – ‘she’ll never breed you a replacement’, which was often a self-fulfilling prophecy because that ewe would most likely be sold to someone breeding terminal lambs!”

Erica says her father enjoyed entering his superfine wool Merino fleeces in wool competitions including the Royal Adelaide Show and country shows.

Over the past 20 years he also had considerable success at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo, Vic, where his list of accolades included champion SA fleece and most valuable fleece multiple times.

In 2014, he took out the champion commercial fleece with a 17.3 micron ewe’s fleece and was less than two points off the grand champion title.

By then, Phil had downsized to a small property and was running 40 breeding ewes.

“It was such a small flock but it was all about the quality,” Erica said.

Maddie Zoanetti, Crafers, was stewarding for the first time in Adelaide in 2022, alongside her grandfather Phillip Venning, Clare, who notched up his 56th year in the role. File picture by Jacqui Bateman

Phil also volunteered as a steward at the Royal Adelaide Show for 57 years, initially in the under 1500 flock classes and later also having a role on the technical reference committee.

Another proud moment came in 2022 when he stewarded alongside his granddaughter Maddie Zoanetti who shared not only the same birthday, but a love of sheep and wool.

Away from the sheep yards, Erica says her father had a great collection of cymbidium orchids, often gifting the flowers to friends and selling blooms to the local florist.

“He was very proud of his garden, including his orchard. We used a lot of the produce he grew in our jams and preserves,” she said.

Phil’s funeral will be held on Thursday at the Clare Uniting Church at 11am.