Herefords Australia Youth committee members from the one family have dominated the junior judging at the 2024 Sydney Royal Easter Show with a swag of titles.
Mitchell Taylor was sashed as the 2024 RAS/ASC beef champion junior judge while his sister Emily was champion junior judge in the RAS/AGS grain section, and reserve champion junior judge for fruit and vegetables.
Mitch, Quipolly, NSW, had previously shown his talent to emerge as champion intermediate herdsman, reserve champion parader, champion junior judge and grand champion junior judge at the 2023 Herefords Australia National Youth Expo at Parkes.
The 17-year-old Year 12 student will now go on to be an associate judge in the Hereford ring at Beef Australia 2024 at Rockhampton, Qld, where he’ll get the opportunity to judge alongside our international guest Jack Ward, Executive Vice President of the American Hereford Association.
“That will be one of the biggest things I’ve ever done, and I can’t wait to get there,” he said.
At Sydney, Mitch competed against 28 entrants under judge David Greenup, Jandowae, Queensland. Competitors had three classes to judge comprising Simmental heifers, Hereford bulls and Santa Gertrudis heifers, with the field narrowed down to 13 for an oral presentation.
The state win entitles Mitch to compete at the national junior judging at the Royal Melbourne Show in September.
Mitch has his own Hereford and Shorthorn stud, MT Livestock, and going forward has mapped out a career in the stock and station agency sector, specialising in stud stock auctioneering.
He will offer his first bull at the Dubbo National Poll Hereford Show and Sale, MT Techno T003 (AI) (PP), a 17-month-old son of Injemira Techno N276, and will have his sister Emily exhibit several heifers at the Ekka in August while he undertakes the trial HSC exams.
“Once I finish school, I want to pursue a job as a stock and station agent, and hopefully participate in the young auctioneer’s competition. I have done some auctioneering at my Year 12 Greatest Shave selling nearly $8000 worth of hair towards the total of $43,000. My first go at auctioneering was at the Herefords Northern NSW youth show selling a few items at the dinner charity auction,” he said.
“I do a little bit of practising at home and school. My main goal is to do stud stock auctioneering, but I will start on commercial pens at the saleyard.”
Mitch lists his auctioneering mentors as Tom Tanner, Davidson Cameron & Co, Gunnedah, and John Settree, Nutrien Ag Solutions stud stock manager, Dubbo.
Emily, 20, has her own stud, Eclipse Poll Herefords, and is completing her second year of her Rural Science degree at the University of New England. Emily was the recipient of the CM Hocking Scholarship for 2022, putting the proceeds of the award towards her university studies.
Emily has also qualified to compete at the Australian grain judging nationals at Melbourne– the first national finals to be held for grain.
She had previously judged fruit and vegetables at Sydney, winning reserve champion junior judge, but this year was her first-time judging grain.
“For me it was harder than beef cattle as we don’t have a large cropping program at home, but it has certainly helped with my university studies.”
Whilst running 20 breeders in her stud, Emily has already had a busy year successfully running the Herefords Northern NSW Youth Camp in January 2023 at Glen Innes as , preparing a bull for the Dubbo National Poll Hereford Show and Sale, which will be her third consecutive year offering bulls at the sale, performing sponsorship duties for her role on the Herefords Australia Youth Committee, and preparing cattle to attend the expo at Cootamundra in July.
Mitch Taylor, third from left, at the presentation for the junior cattle judging championship at Sydney Royal Show. Images Kim Taylor
Emily Taylor is off to the national grain junior judging championships at Melbourne in September after her state win in Sydney.
