More than 350 young people converged on centre ring at Beef Australia 2018 on Friday to put their cattle judging skills to the test in the RB Sellars Young Judges competition.
After several rounds of competition, Rockhampton Girls Grammar student Katelyn Holznagel, Bouldercombe, was awarded the Young Judges Champion title.
Winning the 16- and 17-years age category, Katelyn was awarded the champion title for having the highest aggregate score in the whole competition after all rounds.
Katelyn said she was very surprised to win the Young Judges Champion.
“It’s very exciting,” she said.
“I’ve been doing cattle club since grade eight and recently started judging alpacas as well.”
Learning from agriculture science teacher, Ku Lacey, the Girls Grammar girls have started attending more local shows recently, showing and judging cattle.
“We kind of just have a shot at it and see what we can do,” Katelyn said.
Conducted in five categories based on age, each competitor was required to judge three classes of various breeds of stud cattle and place them in order of preference.
Finalists were then chosen from those contestants with the highest scores after completion of the judging section and were given the opportunity to comment on one of the groups of cattle.
Other results included, Liam Ford winning the 12 and under category, Amie Martin taking out first in the 13- and 14-years group, Brianna Hawkswood winning the 15 years category, and Albert Bookham taking top honours in the 18 and over age group.
RB Sellars owner, Richard Sellars, Melbourne, said the competition was very impressive and he was really happy to sponsor it as a result.
“I couldn’t believe the amount of participants,” Mr Sellars said.
“It was really uplifting to see so many young Australians involved in cattle.
“I was really impressed by the participants’ presentation and ability to speak with the microphone and their depth of knowledge of livestock.”