Young livestock judges set sights on Sydney

New Zealand's top three young livestock judges are one step closer to competing against Australia's finest tyros.

The Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand has gained sponsorship for one young livestock judge to travel to the next Royal Sydney Easter show and is confident the money will be found for the other positions.

A young herdsperson competition will be held at the Royal New Zealand Show in Christchurch in November to select a winner in the dairy, beef and sheep sections respectively.

All going well, the overall 17-to-24-age-group winners will go to the Sydney show next Easter.

The society's beef chairman, Peter Gardner, said the campaign to identify the best young livestock judges and to get more youth involved in stock judging had got off to a good start.

"Sponsorship is our greatest hurdle, but we have money for one out of the three positions, " he said.

Youths and youngsters aged 11 to 24 were taught livestock handling and judging at seminars run last month by the vice-president of the Agricultural Societies Council of New South Wales, David Moor, and junior vice-president Geoff Bush.

Nearly 60 youths, ranging in experience, attended the South Island seminar. Another 25 attended the North Island seminar.

They learnt about the judging process in Australia and how a hormel slide worked (a calculator giving a numerical value out of 50 for the judging of show classes).

Competitors tried their hand at judging southdown ewe hoggets, dairy cows and beef cattle, and had to provide written and oral descriptions explaining why one animal was placed above another.

Gardner said agricultural-society organisers wanted to bring more youth into livestock judging, and the lure of an Australian trip would act as an incentive for them to get involved.

"We have to look after these kids, otherwise they will never get an opportunity to compete against the best from the Australian states."

The youth movement is strong at the more than 600 agricultural shows held in Australia.

Up to 200 young people compete in the judging of sheep wool and meat breeds, fleece, beef and dairy cattle.