Taylor siblings make clean sweep of junior judging at Nationals

Herefords Australia Youth committee members from the one family have dominated the junior judging at the 2024 Melbourne Royal with a swag of titles in beef and grain.

Mitchell Taylor was sashed as the 2024 National Beef champion junior judge, capping off a big year for him, while his sister Emily was National Grains Young Judges champion – the first siblings to win a national competition each at the same event run by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW and Agricultural Shows Australia.

Mitch, 18, of Quipolly, NSW, had previously showed his talent to emerge as champion intermediate herdsman, reserve champion parader, champion junior judge and grand champion junior judge at the 2023 Herefords Australia National Youth Expo at Parkes.

The Year 12 student went on to be an associate judge in the Hereford ring at Beef Australia 2024 at Rockhampton, Qld and was the 2024 RAS/ASC beef champion junior judge at the Royal Sydney Show.

At Melbourne, he judged Hereford and Red Poll heifers and Hereford bulls and spoke publicly on the Hereford heifers.

“It has been a great journey this year and this win topped it off,” he said.

Mitch has his own Hereford and Shorthorn stud, MT Livestock, and going forward has mapped out a career in the stock and station agency sector, specialising in stud stock auctioneering.

Mitch lists his auctioneering mentors as Tom Tanner, Davidson Cameron & Co, Gunnedah, and John Settree, Nutrien Ag Solutions stud stock manager, Dubbo. He works part time for Davidson Cameron & Co and has the goal to become a livestock and property agent.

“The part time work involves yarding, mouthing, weighing and scanning cattle at weaner, fat, female and bull sales, and helping to assess cattle for online sales,” he said.

Mitch is now keen to pass on his knowledge, skills, and advice to younger members of Herefords Australia Youth.

Emily has her own stud, Eclipse Poll Herefords, and has completed the second year of her rural science degree at the University of New England. Emily was the recipient of the CM Hocking Scholarship for 2022, putting the proceeds of the award towards her university studies.

Emily, 20, qualified to compete at the nationals at Melbourne in the grain judging – the first national finals to be held for grain.

She had previously judged fruit and vegetables at Sydney, winning reserve champion junior judge, but this year was her first-time judging grain. Emily was required to judge four samples each of wheat, barley and canola on variety, weight, protein or oil content, pest, weather or harvest damage, quality, and potential markets.

“I still like my cattle and prefer the Herefords over anything else, but agronomy is something I may do some work experience over the break. This time last year I had no idea how to judge grains and to win the Nationals this year was surprising,” Emily said.

“There was a little pressure on Mitch to win after I won in the morning. Mum and Dad were pretty excited we had both done well.”

Victorian Minister for Agriculture Julie Collins congratulated the siblings on their win.

Whilst running 20 breeders in her stud, Emily has already had a busy year successfully running the Herefords Northern NSW Youth Camp in January 2023 at Glen Innes as president, was a vendor at the Dubbo Poll Hereford Show and Sale, performed sponsorship duties for her role on the Herefords Australia Youth Committee, took cattle to the National Youth Expo at Cootamundra in July and exhibited the reserve junior champion heifer at Melbourne.

She also helps at Rayleigh Poll Herefords at Narrabri, where she is gaining further knowledge and experience in the stud stock industry.

Emily attended the Herefords Australia Future Leaders and Breeders Forum and was especially keen to hear the latest around genetics and the Kilcoy Innovation Hub. She then prepared and helped students show steers for Calrossy Anglican School, Tamworth, at the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza to finalise the year.