Report Nan Lloyd
Images Simon Wallace
Dowerin Field Days Show Grounds
Hosted by the Northern Districts Working Sheepdog club.
August 26th – 27th 2026.
Dowerin is a small town in the northern Wheatbelt.
They have been holding machinery field days since 1965, and the event is the largest machinery field day in WA.
Northern Districts Sheepdog Club have been holding trials at the event for decades, with the sheep provided by Simon Emmett and family for over 20 years.
This year the sheep were white tag ewes not long off shears.
It was an interesting event this year. Weather on the first day was fine, sunny and quite warm, but on the second day the rain came, and with-it, freezing wind and miserable conditions. It has been a very dry winter in most of WA so local farmers were smiling through it, as it was a crop saving rain event and extremely welcome.
The sheep, as always at Dowerin were tricky and could split and run very fast. Dogs needed to head clean to hold them.
Once the sheep were settled however, they would often lay on the dogs and not move.
They were generally quite good on the first two obstacles, but the bridge caused a few issues.
There were not a lot of pens. Settling the sheep was made much more difficult with helicopters flying around and large noisy machinery near the trail ground.
As always, it was a challenging and fun event, and because it was an unofficial trial, some learner judges had the opportunity to go on the field with an experienced judge to help learn the ropes. This is a great way to learn to judge without pressure.
The Improver class was able to have a finals run, but the Novice and Open only had the one run.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Novice
Judged by Sue Doherty
| Place | Worker | Dogs Name | Total |
| 1 | Rod Forsyth | Yarralonga Forrest (K) | 66 |
| 2 | Pete Doherty | Nolans Syd | 64 |
| 3 | Terry Martino | Ramulam Tracker (K) | 60 |
| 4 | Nan Lloyd | Kumbark Pocket (K) | 58 |
| 5 | Neil Whyte | Yarralonga Digger (K) | 51 |
Improver
Judged by Terry Martino
| Place | Worker | Dogs Name | Total |
| 1 | Terry Martino | Ramulam Tracker (K) | 128 |
| 2 | Sue Doherty | Rocky Frankie | 101 |
| 3 | Nan Lloyd | Kumbark Pocket (K) | 67 |
| 4 | Gibb McDonald | Ellie | 58 |
| 5 | Nan Lloyd | Ramulam Taj (K) | 33 |
Open
Judged by Gibb MacDonald
| Place | Worker | Dogs Name | Total |
| 1 | Ivan Solomon | Perangery Trish | 82 |
| 2 | Nan Lloyd | Binnaburra Ruffy (K) | 67 |
| 2 | Len Morton | Yilgarngie Izzy | 67 |
| 4 | Nan Lloyd | Kumbark Lexi (K) | 61 |
| 5 | Sue Doherty | Just Patterson | 56 |
| 6 | Russell Ormandy | Akoonah Ella | 54 |
| 7 | Ivan Solomon | Macs Sal | 42 |
| 8 | Neil Whyte | Kenya Mist Special (K) | 37 |
| 8 | Kelly Coomber | Limberlost Bohdi (K) | 37 |
| 10 | Sue Doherty | Rocky Frankie | 36 |
| 11 | Cree Monaghan | Graedawn Finn (K) | 30 |
| 11 | Russell Ormandy | Akoonah Billy | 30 |
