The names of Australia’s most promising young dairy cattle judges have been announced ahead of the Agricultural Shows Australia Young Judges & Paraders competition finals in Melbourne. The national judging will take place at the Melbourne Royal Show later this month.
Agricultural Shows Australia executive officer Katie Stanley said the competition was designed to recognise the best new talent in livestock judging nationwide. “It’s an extremely prestigious event and positions at the nationals are keenly contested,” Ms Stanley said. “These young judges are the future of agricultural show competitions. The national competition is a coveted opportunity to grow personally and professionally by practising skills against the cream of the crop.”
The winner of the dairy cattle young judges would be decided on which competitor most accurately placed the animals from first to fourth, according to its form and characteristics, and justified their assessment. Each year Agricultural Shows Australia brings together each state’s best young judges, aged from 15 to 25, to compete in the National Competition Program across nine categories. Qualification is through success in competitive regional and state competitions.
This year, Victoria will be represented by Angus Fraser, Tongala; it’s the second time he’s been selected for the state. “Growing up in far north Queensland, I became involved in the dairy industry at the age of eight after attending a dairy youth camp,” Mr Fraser said.
As his passion grew, he sought more opportunities to be involved in the industry. In 2020, he moved to Victoria to pursue a career in dairy. “In the years since, I’ve been fortunate enough to achieve first place in my age group in young judges competitions at the Brisbane Ekka and at the Royal Adelaide show,” he said. “Recently, I’ve been appointed as a judge at four local shows in Queensland and Victoria. I was pursuing a career in dairy and there were a few more options down here – I decided dairying was what I wanted to do, when I was 10 or 12.”
Mr Fraser said he started milking cows on the weekends at a local farm. “I loved it and wanted to do more in the industry and that flowed onto the show circuit,” he said. Mr Fraser said there was “so much going on every day” in dairy. “The amount of contact with the animals, the amount of technology, science and biology, on top of the animal husbandry,” he said.
He said he was unable to take part in last year’s competition, as he was on an internship in Canada. “Judging transfers to the day-to-day experience of dairy operations, by being able to analyse the structure of cattle, identify their weaknesses and strengths and implement that into a breeding program,” he said. “Not a lot of people put the time into really understanding the structure of cattle and how that impacts production.”
At the 2023 International Dairy Week, Mr Fraser handled the Brown Swiss grand champion Tandara Carter Ann Arbor 48. He was given a share in the cow as a Christmas present by his employer, renowned Brown Swiss breeder, Ben Govett, Tandara Brown Swiss, Dingee, Vic.
Other finalists are Patrick English, 19, Malanda, Qld, Bridget Liebelt, 25, Meadows, SA, William Dudfield, 26, Burnie, Tas;, Macs Rubain, 19, Camden, NSW, and Zoey Morris, 17, Woodvale, WA.
The national competition is held in a different location each year and the Melbourne Royal Show will play host to the bulk of the 2024 categories.
The National Finals to be held at the Melbourne Royal Show include dairy cattle young judges and paraders, Merino sheep young judges, Merino fleece young judges, meat sheep breeds young judges, grain young judges and beef cattle young judges and paraders, along with the Australian Young Farmer Challenge and National Rural Ambassador Award.
The national Dairy Cattle Young Judges championship will be held 10am, Saturday September 28, at the Melbourne Royal Show.
Source: Farmline.com