Truck crash won't stop farmer making Bendigo's Australian Sheep and Wool Show

Yet Dawson Bradford and his wife Greta will make the best of the situation and plan to go ahead with their stall.

Twenty of the couple's stock, including six sheep intended for display at the show, were en route from Western Australia when the truck rolled near Mandurah, Mr Bradford said.

The sheep survived Tuesday's crash but the decision was made to send them back to Popayinning, 170 kilometres south-east of Perth.

They were being assessed by a vet after their ordeal, Mr Bradford said.

Mr and Mrs Bradford were not in the truck when the truck crashed.

They flew to Bendigo and intended to stay for the show, even if the crash had left them without sheep to display to buyers in an industry where people set worth by what they can see and feel with their own eyes.

"We've really come over here to promote this new breed we have been developing for the past 12 or 14 years," Mr Bradford said.

"A lot of the public don't yet know about it and this is one place where we come to promote it."

"We're just glad to be here and we are trying to turn this situation into a positive, so we will work our way through until Saturday," Mr Bradford said.

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The couple spent Thursday setting up a display tent at the Bendigo showgrounds and had been able to print off copies of some of the promotional material lost or damaged when the truck crashed.

Mr Bradford was looking forward to catching up with Victorian clients and talking to people about his UltraWhite breed of sheep.

He founded the breed after a major health scare in 2002, hoping to cut down his workload but keep the sheep side of his business Hillcroft Farms going.

"As wool production and related activities made up at least 25 per cent of the workload with shearing, crutching and dagging, fly strike, lice control and mustering, etc, it became obvious that this was one chore of sheep production that could be eliminated," according to the farms' website.

The new breed was a mix of white dorper and poll dorset and was better suited to the wetter conditions of his part of Western Australia than many shedding breeds, Mr Bradford said.

"My area has quite good rainfall and I wanted a high performing, hardy sheep that was full shedding and that would be suitable for a wide range of conditions, including high and low rainfall," he said.

The Australian Sheep and Wool Show takes place at the Prince of Wales Showgrounds from Friday to Sunday.

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