A calm approach and ability to always show his heifer off to its best has earned Mason Galpin from Penola the title of the nation’s best young beef cattle parader.
The 21-year-old who had just returned from six weeks overseas was always the crowd favourite as the SA representative.
When judge and Spence Dix & Co director Jono Spence from Keith gave him a congratulatory handshake a loud cheer erupted from around the ring.
Mason, who is the stud manager of his family’s Warrawindi Limousin stud and also runs a small Simmental stud said it was the pinnacle of more than a decade showing cattle.
“It has always been a dream to be on top in my parading but to win it in my home city of Adelaide is a pretty big deal for me – I’m over the moon,” he said.
“It (Showing cattle) is like a sport for me, I love the beef industry and it is where my future is.”
Mason also won the senior champion handler at the recent SA Junior Heifer Expo.
Mr Spence put the seven finalists from SA, Vic, NSW, WA, Qld, Tas and New Zealand through their paces, swapping them onto another animal and observing how they handled their animals without a show cane in a bid to separate them.
He said he was impressed by Mason’s professional approach, ability to stand his animal up and always being aware of his surrounds.
“You were on the ball but you also weren’t staring at me too much either,” he said.
“We swapped you over as soon as we could with the most difficult heifer and you realised she was difficult and she wasn’t easy for you either but you worked on her and calmed her down.”
The national finalists were given just an hour to familiarise themselves with their ballot Limousin heifers and prepare them for judging.
Mr Spence summed up in one word what he was looking for in his placegetters- awareness.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are an electrician or a policeman, certainly a farmer particularly in NSW and southern Qld at the moment, we have got to have awareness of what is going on around us,” he said.
“When we come out we have got to have awareness of the crowd, the animal in front of us and what might upset our animal on the way around, but most importantly we have got to have awareness of our animal.
“I know it is a handlers class and it is all about you but in what you are trying to achieve is about showing that animal and that is what you are being judged for.”
NSW finalist George Harborne from Greenleaf Angus stud, Crookwell was runner-up.
Mr Spence said he admired George’s relaxed nature, how he held the leather straps fairly right to maintain control of his heifer and ability to readjust his animal when it got out of position in the line-up.
