First-time Wingham Beef Week entrant 12-year-old Charli Issanchon of Pact Pastoral at Gresford had quite the debut performance after finishing in the top three with her Charolais cross steer.
Ms Issanchon's steer had the third highest score of the competition on 93.333 points and placed third in the heavyweight division behind the grand and reserve champions.
She worked with her parents Patrick and Amy Issanchon, and brother Ty, 8, to prepare the steer after selecting him from the Maitland saleyards.
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"She was involved with picking cattle we liked and buying from Maitland. I helped break it in, but after that Charli did everything," Mr Issanchon said.
"He was shown at Maitland and got third in the heavyweights on the hoof, then at Gresford the judge didn't like him, but Charli took him in paraders and won her age group."
Fed for about 150 days, Mr Issanchon said he actually put the steer back in the paddock after Gresford Show because they weren't sure what they would do with him. "The other steers had him on fat, we lost a point, and if I kept him on feed that extra 30 to 40 days who knows how we would've ended up," he said.
Ms Issanchon also won the No Bull Artificial Insemination course sponsored by Stephen Brown.
Mr Issanchon was very proud of his daughter who had only been preparing and showing steers for 12 months and also started her own stud.
"She first went to Beef Bonanza at Scone, " he said. "Charli has just started a Speckle Park stud, we bought a heifer and bull from Wattle Grove ... we plan to take the heifer to Sydney as a cow/calf for the feature."
