After coming a close second last year Mason Galpin, Penola, went one better to claimed the champion beef cattle parader title, from a near record number of entries.
Judge and Murray Grey breeder Tania Guaran, Wooragee, Vic, was impressed by the 20 year old’s ability to show the Charolais heifer he borrowed from Boulview stud, Loxton off, declaring him a “clear winner.”
“He just fades into the background and has got good control of her,” she said.
“He knew where I was all the time but importantly while he knew he wasn’t looking at me all the time.
“It is really hard to get a good balance in these classes – you don’t want to be staring at the judge all the time.”
Ms Guaran had the 8 to 23 year-old entrants perform a number of tasks such as turning their animals around the steward as it became increasingly difficult to separate the talent in the large classes.
In the championship the four finalists swapped animals to enable her to see their rapport with another animal.
Mr Galpin has been handling beef cattle for about a decade and has progressed through the ranks at the Landmark SA Junior Heifer Expo.
This year he was the reserve senior champion handler.
He is involved in the family’s Warrawindi Limousin stud and also breeds Border Leicester sheep and Simmental cattle.
As the champion parader Mr Galpin will represent SA in the national finals in Adelaide next year which he described as a “big thrill”.
“I just love preparing the cattle and making them look their best,” he said.
“I’ve never won this award here so it is a big achievement for me.”
Another young handler on the rise, according to Ms Guaran was the winner of the junior class, nine-year-old Olivia Baker, Furner.
She was parading a black Simmental from the family’s Woonallee stud.
“This young lady is very subtle in the way she handles her animal and did an outstanding job when she was asked to swap animals after never having done it before,” Ms Guaran said.
The Landmark encouragement award went to eight-year-old Samuel Buick, Western Flat, for keeping his cool with his headstrong Murray Grey heifer.
