Focusing on future leaders

Justin Johnston is involved with teaching all aspects of showing, feeding and breeding to youth at International Dairy Week.

International Dairy Week is often a family activity, involving generations of the same family and their connections, just as at many local and district shows.

People help each other, with clipping, transporting, training and looking after cattle.

There is also a lot of mentoring that goes on between generations.

Justin Johnston, from Glomar Holsteins, at Bundalaguah in Victoria’s Gippsland region, is one of these people.

Justin and his parents, Robert and Lynette, have successfully exhibited Holstein cows and heifers at IDW for decades. The family has accumulated a large number of champion and reserve champion ribbons at IDW and other shows.

Justin was selected to represent Australia’s Holstein Youth at the World Holstein Friesian Federation Conference, in March 2016.

Since then, Justin has given back to the dairy industry, and the Holstein sector in particular, organising and supporting camps and development opportunities for youth.

He has also been involved with teaching all aspects of showing, feeding and breeding to youth at IDW.

The youth camp occurs in the days before IDW and the participating 10-member teams are given a Holstein heifer to prepare and show.

This year, Justin also assisted Mitchell and Lyndsay Fleming, of Impression prefix, by transporting their Jersey cattle to IDW, and helping them with readying their cows and heifers for show.

An Impression cow won the Intermediate Champion Jersey and a heifer received an Honourable Mention in the Junior Champion Jersey class.

“I’m encouraging local people to develop an identity as a Gippsland team, across all breeds. We can all help each other,” Justin said.

This year, 11 teams (10 people in a team), including a team from New Zealand, participated in the youth challenge at IDW.

“The teams undertake 12 months of learning that culminates at IDW,” Justin said.

“They participate in on farm training days organised by dairy breed sub-branches.

“They learn about veterinary care of their animals, how to clip, lead and judge them.

“The youth teams also go to local shows and royal shows and take on the feedback they receive at each event.”

The age of each youth team member ranges from eight years old to 22. The teams are represented by youth from all over Australia — in the past couple of years, their opportunities to get together and practise their skills have been hampered by the pandemic restrictions and flooding.

Heifers are donated to each team at IDW by Brent Mitchell from Mitch Holsteins, at Bamawm, in northern Victoria.

“The team at Mitch Holsteins break in the heifers to lead and transport them to IDW. They’ve been providing the heifers for a long time,” Justin said.

This year’s three judges were all graduates of the youth program, and gained a lot of knowledge and skills as participants in the Young Breeders tour of Belgium and Holland in 2022.

The Young Breeders Tour encompasses a school in Belgium and farm tours in Holland, and is an opportunity for participants to gain friendships within the dairy industry from across the world.

The Young Breeders School is an annual five-day event run by the Association Wallone de l’Elevage in Belgium. It involves hands-on workshps including bedding, showmanship and clipping, with classroom-based sessions including marketing and herd promotion.

After three days of workshops and practice, participants demonstrate their skills in stock judging, showmanship and calf classes.

In 2022, the Australian Young Breeders School team was Courtney Afford, Andrew Gray, Nathan Hart, Georgie Sieben and Kaitlyn Wishart.

“To be selected, they have to be the best in their field at the time they apply,” Justin said.

“They all participated in the youth challenge at IDW in previous years.”

As well as organising and chaperoning teams and the calendar of events, Justin also works with Holstein Australia to raise funds to support the youth development activities.

This is alongside his own responsibilities on-farm and in the stud, as well as spending time with his young family.

But he is passionate about giving back to the dairy industry, and has developed the existing youth program by initiating the Young Breeders School tour and an annual exchange opportunity with the United Kingdom.

“I probably put in a couple of hours a week for the whole year — probably 100 hours for the whole year.

“I get enjoyment out of seeing the kids grow. Our family involvement in IDW has always been positive.”

At IDW 2023, the youth team judged best afield is from northern Victoria.

“It was great to see so many kids get involved again,” Justin said.

“There was a lot of interaction between participants and judges, about how to lead, prepare and clip their animals for the show.”

Chelsea Schutz, 11, from Joanna in South Australia, was dwarfed by the Holstein heifer in the clipping competition at International Dairy Week. She is the daughter of Belinda and Glen Schutz and was the youngest in the South Australian team.
Part of the crew representing the Holstein Australia northern Victorian team (from left, front) Dakota Robertson, Isla Robertson, Cooper Fisher, (back) Scarlett Bawden, Mikaela Daniels and Abbey Robinson. Dakota and Isla were not entered in the arena competition. “We’re the support crew,” they told Dairy News Australia.
Matilda Cole, 15, from Wagga Wagga in the youth judging competition at IDW.
Lukas Robertson from Yarroweyah wields the clippers on a heifer during the youth show at IDW.
Hannah Kuhl (left) from Mt Gambier is pictured in the stalls with Dekota Hindsmarsh from Cowra and her young Jersey heifer. Dekota was showing the 14-month-old heifer, which is part of her Appletree Jerseys stud. Photo by Rechelle Zammit