A team from southern Queensland, hastily assembled at the last minute, has won the national young Farmers Challenge, hosted by the Royal Agricultural Youth Group at this year's Sydney Royal Show.
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The event is organised by young people for young people keen to show show-goers the diverse skills required to make a living from the land.
The team comprising rodeo queen Mikyla Hogno from Warwick; veterinarian Sarah Rose, Toogoolawah; electrician Joshua White from Warwick and Droughtmaster breeder Lawrence Sehmish-Lahey from Goondiwindi worked well as a team, in spite of meeting for the first time just hours before the event.
Facing off against similar young teams from NSW, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia they answered academic questions, identified grains, walked as one upon wobbly planks, blindly groped for ear tags in a dark bag, threw a fleece, fought a fire and finally rolled a 200kg bale of wool along a sandy track to claim victory.
"This is a good event to motivate show-goers who might be keen to get involved," enthused Ms Rose.
In second place was the WA team with Tash and Carleton Hull from Mount Barker, Kelly Gorter from Napier and Cam Broun from Beverely.
RAS Youth Group chair Tim Green, Nimmitabel, said the event was a great opportunity to bring farmers to the city and showcase the everyday skills required to succeed in agriculture while having a bit of fun.
"It's good for us to get engaged and get involved with farmers from all over Australia," said the PhD student who is researching short life-cycle wheat varieties at Charles Sturt University, Wagga.
"It's a great time to be in agriculture in Australia and there are so many opportunities. As a young person there are many other ways to be involved other than directly owning the farm."
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