Farmer News
1 September, 2026
Western district locals represent state
THE agricultural knowledge of two western district residents was on show at a national level last month.
Abbie Hanks from Cobden and Brittany Abbott from Kolora were among a number of Victorian Agricultural Show (VAS) representatives who attended the Agricultural Shows Australia National Finals, which were held at the Brisbane Royal Show in August.
Abbie said she was honoured to be among those chosen to represent her state on the national stage.
“It was a very big privilege to be a Victorian representative,” she said.
“I didn’t expect to win the whole thing, but it was just nice to represent Victoria and the western district as well.
“I competed in January at the International Dairy Week state final and won that which qualified me to compete in Brisbane.
“I travelled there on Monday, August 10 and competed against other states.”
Abbie was part of dairy cattle judging and parading, saying she was “lucky” to be named as the overall winner.
“We were given a heifer to work with for an hour, and then we competed,” she said.
“We were judged on our showmanship skills with the heifers.
“It’s a ballot system, where they randomly select a heifer out of a hat for each competitor, entrants are given an hour to prepare and are then required to lead that heifer into the ring for judging.
“Throughout the competition, the judge switched us all around, so I also led two Holstein heifers.”
Brittany said she was also thrilled to represent Victoria, with the recent competition her second time entering the cattle judging event.
“This was my second time representing Victoria and it was really exciting to be part of the Victorian team which won the title of overall most successful state.”
Brittany said her competition (judging) was a challenging one.
“Each individual is scored 200 points; 150 of those points are to match the judge’s view on the cattle and the remaining 50 points is based on our public speaking, reasoning, presentation and ring craft,” she said.
“It’s a pretty tough gig and there’s a lot of moving parts in the competition.
“We’re trying to match someone else’s opinion, which can be quite tricky because everyone sees things differently based on their own background, their environment and what they wish to see in cattle.
“We had three classes of cattle – Limousin heifers, speckled park heifers and shorthorn bulls.
“We were able to choose the class we wished to speak on so I chose the speckled park heifers and was able to give my reasonings behind placings, which is really important.”
Both Abbie and Brittany are now keen to use the skills they developed during this competition back in their workplaces.
For Brittany, this means passing the lessons she learned on to her students at RIST (Rural Industries Skill Training Centre).
“For me, I will take the skills I learnt about being able to assess cattle and communicate differences in cattle type and structure, into my own cattle program and continue judging cattle, as well as pass on knowledge to my students,” she said.
“It’s not always about EBVs (Estimated Breeding Value) and data; structural integrity is a big thing and being able to judge and assess cattle and communicate differences is a really big skill in any agricultural workplace.”
Brittany said being able to communicate cattle differences – whether it’s with peers and colleagues or on a microphone to an audience – was an important skill for anyone looking to work in agriculture.
“I encourage anyone to have a go at judging cattle because it is really satisfying, and you do meet a lot of really good people along the way.”
And for Abbie, she is now simply keen to continue working with her own heifers and developing her skills.
“This is kind of the pinnacle of the showmanship competitions in Australia, and I’ve been able to achieve all of that,” she said.
“I’m very happy and honoured to have done all that, so I don’t really have any more ambitions in the showmanship side in Australia.
“I would love to go overseas and lead heifers for people in America or Europe at the big shows there one day, but I’m just focusing now on my own cattle and developing them as a breeder.”
VAS executive officer Rod Bowles said the efforts of all representatives, including Abbie and Brittany, resulted in Victoria receiving the Patrick Keast Shield for the most successful state.
“The Victorian team won six out of 10 competitions, with Harry Lloyd runner-up in the rural ambassador award.”