Action in the centre ring at Beef Australia 2018 has officially kicked off, with over 400 youngsters fighting it out for the Young Paraders title.
After several rounds of judging, 14-year-old Western Wendt, Treadstone Limousins, Mundubbera was crowned as the winner.
The win is a major achievement for Western who said he was stoked to be taking home the title.
With 101 competitors in the 13- to 14-years age category alone, Western said it was a tough gig to get through to the final round.
“I just aim to go out there and have a go and managed to have a win,” he said.
Western said he has been working hard with bull, Ned, to get him ready for the day, and he did a great job during the competition.
“He's just pretty humble and comes along and does what he's meant to,” Western said.
Competition over-judge, Cherie Gooding, Marlegoo Charbray Stud, Biloela, said choosing a winner was extremely difficult but Western showed the combination of safety and technical ability that she was looking for.
“He was very calm all the time and had the animal under beautiful control and never stopped trying to show his animal off,” she said.
“The animal was beautifully groomed and immaculately presented.”
Bringing together a huge number of juniors, Mrs Gooding said it was wonderful to see so many involved.
“Beef has an amazing ability to do that and it's a hard job for the judges that have to do the heats,” she said.
“What better platform do you have than Beef to get the kids really enthusiastic about the industry and bringing them on.
“Even the ones who aren’t actually competing, they get to see what it's all about and hopefully that'll encourage them to get involved next time as well.”
Narrowing the 403 competitors down to just one isn’t an easy job, and judge Kate Johnson, McAplin Livestock, Mittagong, had the toughest job with 125 competitors in her category, the 16- to 17-years-olds.
“It's phenomenal to see such a turnout from the youth coming up here to Beef,” Kate said.
“It's a well-regarded competition and there's some very fierce competition amongst it.
“There's so many brilliant young ambassadors out there who are wanting to do so much for agriculture as a whole, not just stud and beef cattle.
“I really look forward to seeing these young adults growing up and entering their professional careers and seeing where they go.”
Check out all the action from around the ring.