In just his third year of showing, Dominic Edwards has taken out the RAS Youth Show beef parader champion.
The Yanco Agricultural High School student says he has a couple of commercial cattle at home at Coorparoo, Qld, and otherwise works with an uncle on his commercial beef farm near Walgett.
Dominic, 15, does, however, hope to set up his own Santa Gertrudis stud at some stage down the track, partly because of that breed's adaptability to northern climes.
As for the win, he said he just does his best to keep the animal calm and let it show itself off.
Reserve parader was Angus Johnson, Dubbo.
As judge Hannah Powe said, this was all about helping to develop the next generation of industry leaders who would not only show cattle, but also have an influence on the industry - anywhere from science, seedstock, meat to being an agent.
"You guys are now really taking the initiative to reach out to a lot of breed societies and see what opportunities are out there. That's how I got started in this, I always showed Murray Greys and never went into a paraders or into a junior judging class until a heifer show in about 2009 and I was about 15/16," she said, in explaining she was later into the game than most.
She also commended the competitors on doing "pretty much everything I ask for", which ultimately made the placings decision hard to split, she said.
She said she could have "pretty much gone any direction in this class" with her placings, due to the competitiveness that was shown.
She said everybody had a good handle on their animals, with a firm grip but soft movement in positioning and walking their charges and how they used their cane.
She also asked all the entrants what was a fault in their animal and how would they fix it, because, as she said, a good parader will know that before they enter the ring and know how to correct any faults as they present that animal to the judge.
