With every state and territory represented at the 2020 Angus Youth National Roundup, it was clear that the beef industry's next generation is keen to take advantage of any learning opportunity.
For 23-year-old Billi Marshall, who made the trip from Dongara in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, attending the Roundup in Toowoomba last week was about opening more doors for herself and pursuing her passion for the beef industry.
This passion, and drive to keep learning, has seen her awarded the Angus Australia 2020 Trans-Tasman Exchange scholarship which entitles her to a trip around New Zealand, visiting Angus studs, commercial operations, feedlots and attend field days and sales.
Working as a breeding technician for a cattle veterinarian in the Wheatbelt, Ms Marshall said she couldn't wait to experience the New Zealand beef industry and bring something back to the Australian industry.
"My ideal target is reproduction centres. I work in a repro centre in WA, so I'd really like to go over and see how they do it and how they collect their genetic material," she said.
Responsible for the day to day care of the animals at the reproduction centre, as well as the manual programming necessary to achieve a high fertility and high success rate, Ms Marshall said she fell into the job by surprise.
"The vets approached me and said they had an opportunity for me, and I decided to take a leap and change," she said.
"I'm absolutely loving it and currently getting accredited for preg testing and undergoing AI training.
"Ideally, by the end of the year, I'll be conducting the full embryo programs on farm from start to finish."
As a committee member of WA youth camp, Ms Marshall said Roundup had been an "absolutely awesome" experience.
"We're pretty limited in WA stock wise when it comes to these sorts of things, we only have one youth camp, so if you really do want to try to make a dent in the youth competition side, you've got to be willing to travel and put the hard yards in to get here so that's what I did," she said.
"It's really good to take something back and throw some fresh ideas in, keep up with what everyone else is doing and really keep it relevant to the industry."
