The 20-hour trip from Malanda to Maleny has paid off for 19-year-old Jerry English, who claimed the Queensland Ag Shows dairy cattle young paraders and young judges state titles over the weekend.
Representing the North Queensland sub-chamber, Mr English went up against five other competitors in the young judges competition, and three others in the young paraders.
After arriving home on Tuesday night, Mr English said he was pretty happy about his win.
"It takes a fair bit of practice, and effort and time have to be put in to be able to achieve such a thing, so I'm pretty happy," he said.
He was a 'little bit disappointed' not to go to the Ekka, "because Brisbane has such a good atmosphere".
"In saying that, it was good that we were able to have it and there's nothing wrong with going to Maleny and having a standalone day for it."
Dairying is in Mr English's blood, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
"My family have a dairy farm in Malanda, we've been milking cows in Malanda for over 100 years and we've been showing Illawarras at Malanda Show for 105 years this year," he said.
"At home we milk about 180 cows, and I work on another dairy farm, different to the family farm, milking 300 there, so I don't get too bored and there's always something happening.
"I quite enjoy milking cows, we've been doing it forever and that's why we're still doing it."
Mr English particularly likes showing dairy cattle.
"It's a good atmosphere at the show, especially going to Brisbane show when we take cows down there, there's a lot of people you don't get to see for a long time," he said.
"It's a lot of work getting cows ready for the show and if you have a good day, you can see all the hard work pays off in the results.
"And if you put in hard work, you'll be able to see the results, no matter if you've got cows at the show or cows at home, you get a lot of milk if you put in the work for it."
Overall, it was 'a pretty successful trip' for Mr English, but most of all, he said it's a pleasure to compete against his peers.
"It's good that there's young people that are keen on the industry because it's not a real easy industry to get into at the moment," he said.
"And it's always good to go down there and have different competition to what we're used to up here."
Coming runner-up to Mr English in the young judges competition was Clinton Keir from Gaven, representing the West Moreton and Brisbane Valley sub-chamber.
Sharnaye Wintzloff from Yandina, representing the Near North Coast sub-chamber, was the young paraders runner-up.
Overjudge for the young judges and paraders competitions was Robbie Raddel of Biggenden.
The winners of both competitions will represent Queensland at the 2022 Agriculture Shows of Australia national championships at the Sydney Royal Show.
Queensland Ag Shows received record entries in the competitions this year, despite the continued troubled conditions and the uncertain future the dairy industry faces.