A Katamatite student will compete in a national cow parading competition at the Melbourne Royal Show.
Sienna Ross won a cow parading competition at International Dairy Week, so she will be representing Victoria against the other Australian states.
Sienna, 17, is accustomed to high-pressure competition, having been showing cattle for years and working in the arena of the world’s biggest dairy show in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
She also loves the task.
“Through working on the farm my passion grew from a young age for showing dairy cows,” she said.
“I have been lucky enough for it to take me Australia-wide and even to the United States working.”
Sienna has about 20 of her own Jerseys running with her parents’ herd on the family farm.
She considers her work in parading and fitting for the World Dairy Expo a unique experience.
“It was the most incredible experience ever. It was a massive stadium,” she said.
“It was strange in a way, seeing and working with the most famous people I know.”
She visited the US with her mum, Simone, and her sister.
Sienna is intending to study agricultural science at Melbourne University with the goal of working as an IVF technician, while continuing to show cows.
The winner of the Melbourne Royal Show’s National Dairy Cattle Young Paraders Championship will be determined by who has best prepared, presented and paraded their animal before a judge.
The competition brings together the best young judges and paraders, aged 15 to 25, from each state. These participants qualify through success in regional and state competitions.
Overall there are nine categories for judging and parading each year under the Agricultural Shows Australia national competition program: beef cattle, dairy cattle, grain, poultry, Merino sheep, meat breed sheep and Merino fleece judging, as well as parading competitions in beef and dairy cattle.
Agricultural Shows Australia executive officer Katie Stanley says the competition is designed to recognise the best new talent in livestock judging nationwide.
“It’s an extremely prestigious event and positions at the nationals are keenly contested,” she said.
"These young people are the future of agricultural show competitions, which are crucial to the continual improvement of Australia’s food and fibre. The national competition is a coveted opportunity to grow personally and professionally by practising skills against the cream of the crop.“
The National Dairy Cattle Young Paraders Championship will be held at 8am on Saturday, September 29.