Vic youth have maintained their stronghold of the major award at the SA Sheep Expo.
Corriedale breeder Tess Runting, Baxter, Vic, will follow in the footsteps of Emily Attard, also from the Mornington Peninsula, Vic the inaugural recipient of the New Zealand study tour in 2016.
Ms Runting said it was a complete honour to win the award as the highest achiever in the senior age group.
The 18-year-old is looking forward to visiting Corriedale and Romney studs and commercial properties to learn about new technologies they are adopting.
NZ is known as the sheep central of the world, so they will have new ideas being developed which we can learn from, she said.
I hope to make the most of it and come back and teach other young ones what I have learned in NZ.
It will be good to see the diversity of their industry and how their sheep handle the different terrain.
Ms Runting had high praise for the expo program, particularly enjoying passing on some of her skills to young ones through the buddy system, where seniors are paired with juniors.
I have learned so much from people in another state, here in SA, that I had never been before, she said.
It has been fantastic to have a wealth of knowledge at our finger tips.
Ms Runting established her Moralla stud as a Year 11 student at Woodleigh School.
It has since grown to 40 head.
She was bitten by the sheep bug in Year 7 when she joined the Corriedale show team and says she owes her start to agriculture teacher Charlie Clarke and former student Daniel Mosele.
Corriedales were Ms Runtings breed of choice for their hardiness and large frames.
They were what I knew from handling them at school, but they are really good to work with, she said.
They are a well-rounded sheep, bred for Australian conditions with their black points.
I have been selling the fleeces to spinners and those using it for craft.
Moralla stud exhibits at about 12 shows across Vic each year with good success, including best first-time exhibitor at the 2015 Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo, Vic.
Ms Runting is also the convenor of the sheep section of Pakenham Show, which attracted 120 entries this year and a strong schools program.
Ms Runting is on a gap year but hopes to study agriculture at university in 2018.
There are so many opportunities for young people to get involved, and really from the agriculture industry you can do any job, especially sheep where you have the meat and wool side of things, she said.
The NZ bursary, valued at up to $3000, was sponsored by the Australian Stud Sheep Breeders Association and the SA Sheep Industry Fund.
