A STUD breeder and a veterinarian in the making were the travel scholarship awardees at the Herefords Australia National Youth Expo.
Janet Cantwell, 25, and Brittany Abbott, 20, were the recipients of a $2500 grant each to travel around Australia or New Zealand to develop their interests with the Hereford breed.
Ms Cantwell said she would like to stay domestic and visit studs to make connections to further develop her own family stud, Mulloon Poll Herefords, Mulloon.
"We're only fairly knew so we haven't had time to travel and gain those connection besides at shows so I want to further those and create some new ones," she said.
Ms Cantwell said she hoped this will allow her to continue to expand the stud with a five year goal of doubling the herd and having their own on farm bull sale. Currently they have about 12 breeding females.
From Mulloon, Ms Cantwell didn't always grow up around cattle with her family only taking over the farm from her grandmother when she was 17.
"I wasn't that kid that grew up going through heifer shows - we helped out on the farm on weekends but we hadn't lived it," she said.
Ms Cantwell attended her first heifer show in 2016.
"I caught the bug, did as many heifer shows as I could and took in as much as I could," she said.
Meanwhile Ms Abbott said she is looking at visiting northern NSW to travel to studs and a genetic centre to expand her knowledge of the breed.
Ms Abbott is studying animal science at CSU, Wagga Wagga and is aiming to go into veterinary science.
"I want to go into genetics so bringing that reproduction side into the beef industry and knowing and understanding the assets of Herefords is something you can really look at," she said.
"With my cattle background using those genetics and from that advising on how those bulls are developing and what industries they'd go through."
Originally from Mortlake Ms Abbott grew up on a Red Poll stud but became attracted to the Hereford breed.
"There's a lot of opportunity within the Hereford breed and that's why I'm getting into those and wanting to take that further," she said.
Alexandra Bernard
Journalist based in Wagga Wagga covering all things agriculture in southern NSW.
Journalist based in Wagga Wagga covering all things agriculture in southern NSW.
