Jace Lamb parades cattle 26 times his size

A veteran parader of four years, the six-year-old scored third prize in his age group at the Springsure Cattle Camp earlier this month against 13 others, parading a 16-month-old commercial Speckle Park heifer.

Jace's parents, Megan and Dan Lamb, of Parraweena, Theodore, run a commercial herd on 6474 hectares (16,000 acres), as well as N-Bar Brangus Stud and a Texas Longhorn stud.

Mrs Lamb said Jace was 19 kg "wringing wet" when he weighed himself recently and the Speckle Park heifer was 500 kg.

"We've acquired a few Speckles over the past few years because the kids like going to shows and they like to show something different in the commercial female class," she said.

"Jace borrowed that heifer off his big brother to use for the camp - ordinarily that particular heifer would be used by his 12-year-old brother, Jack.

"The heifer that Jace normally uses is a stud Brangus heifer and she's off to Beef next week so she just didn't need the extra work of a cattle camp hence why he borrowed his big brother's Speckle heifer."

Jace is the youngest of four children with the eldest being John, 16, followed by Jack, 12, and Johannah, 9.

"He's been parading cattle at competitions since he was two and he just loves leading cows," Mrs Lamb said.

"He loves getting out there at competitions and cattle camps. I think his whole life revolves around leading cows. He just wants to grow up and take over the farm and be a cattle farmer."

Mrs Lamb said Jace's highest achievement to date was winning the herdsman award for his age group at the Brangus Youth Camp in December last year.

"That's probably been one of his highlights winning that award and he's also shown Texas Longhorns down at the National Longhorn Show in Scone in NSW...that's probably been a pretty big thing for him to travel two days in a truck and compete down there," she said.

Mrs Lamb said Jace also went along with the the family to 15 shows and three cattle camps last year,

And while Jace is disappointed at not being old enough to compete at Beef, Mrs Lamb said he understood he was just too little for some shows.

"But, I think he's looking forward to the experience because it's his heifer that's one of the ones that we're taking up to Beef," she said.

"He's looking forward to keeping her groomed and making sure she looks her very best to go out in the ring.

"His older sister, Johannah, will use her as a parader animal and his big brother will show her in a stud class on Tuesday because they have to be 12 to go into the stud classes and his sister is only nine."

Jace's Brangus heifer is 17-month-old Yaraandoo Fine Lady, which he chose and purchased from the Brangus Society Sale in Rockhampton last year.

Mrs Lamb said when Jace was parading in a show ring his focus was on keeping his hand up and making sure his animal was standing up and looking proud.

"Ideally, they (the children) like to have an animal worked for six weeks before they take them off to an event...they start with just ropes and getting them used to being in a yard and feeding them, then every afternoon they will tie them up and groom them and just be around them, and desensitise them before they take them out to an event," she said.

"Jace just wants to be part of it, he just loves cows, all aspects of them."