A pair of siblings from one of North Queensland's longest serving dairy farming families will represent Queensland in the national finals of the Agricultural Shows Australia Dairy Cattle Young Paraders and Judges championship.
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Rachel English won the young paraders title, while brother Patrick English, 18, took out the young judges competition at yesterday's state finals held at the Malanda Show.
The pair will compete at the national titles being held in Victoria next year.
It was second time lucky for Ms English who finished third in the state titles in Brisbane in 2017.
"I'm a bit lost for words," she said. "She (the heifer) was a little bit cranky coming in but they usually settle down a bit with a bit of leading. She was a rock by the end of it."
The daughter of fourth and fifth generation dairy farmers, Ms English is passionate about showing dairy cattle.
Judge Paul Newland agreed, declaring Rachel an "outstanding winner".
She competed alongside Charlie Blackmore, RNA; Caitlyn Magee, Wondai; Zoe D'Neill, Gatton, and Lucy Stace, Toowoomba, for the title.
Mr Newland said it was clear from the five contestants the value of experience attending calf camps.
"It's really crucial that when we are leading an animal, we are leading that animal to show up every part of them to the best of their ability," Mr Newland said.
Patrick English finished ahead of runner-up Zoe O'Neill, Gatton, in the young judges championship.
It was the first time the state titles have been hosted by Malanda, and only the second time away from its usual venue, the Ekka in Brisbane.
Queensland Ag Shows general manager Trevor Beckingham said the decision to move the state titles was made due to falling dairy cattle numbers.
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"Unfortunately, the dairy industry in Queensland is undergoing a period of transition and there's not as many dairy cattle around to what there use to be," Mr Beckingham said.
"We struggled to run a competition at RNA last year so we recognised that we needed to go to where the cattle are.
"We want our competitors to be competitive when they go into nationals.
"They have to get experience and can only get that where there are the numbers of cattle."
