JUNIORS

NICOLE

makes mark in showring S

INCE winning the national young paraders competition in 2015, Simmental breeder Nicole Muller has had the opportunity to travel all over South Australia, Victoria, and even Queensland to further her career with stud cattle. Nicole is from Mt Gambier in South Australia, and her family owns the Rellum Farms Simmental Stud. She said she started leading calves when she first learnt to walk, and has grown up wanting to do more with stud cattle. “As a kid I got to participate in things like the South Australian Heifer Expo, the Angus Roundup, and I’ve even been to Queensland a few times to do the Simmental junior camp,” Nicole said.

Nicole Muller won the 2015 national finals of the young paraders competition, and is one of the youngest people to represent South Australia.

“In 2014 I competed in the South Australian young paraders competition, where I won my class. I then had to go into the ring against the winners of the four other age groups, and I was judged as the champion parader.

“I then got to fly over to the Sydney Royal Easter Show in 2015, where I was lucky enough to win the national competition. It was a fantastic experience,” Nicole said. Since then, Nicole and her father and brother have been travelling around South Australia and Victoria breaking in and showing cattle for clients. “I’ve travelled to Queensland a few times to show cattle at the Ekka, and that’s been great to meet new people. Back at home I’ve also been teaching students from my local high school how to lead and work with cattle, which has been really good,” Nicole said.

“I was only just 18 at the time, which makes me one of the youngest people to win the South Australian competition. Normally it is one of the older competitors that head off to nationals.

“These days I’m fairly involved with the family stud. We get a say on what genetics we think we should use, and what animals we want to show. I definitely want to stay in this industry, as I really do enjoy it.” by Andrea Schulz

“I’ve shown cattle at Adelaide and Melbourne and that has been a great opportunity to learn new skills. Over the years I’ve worked for different people and that has helped me to increase my knowledge of this industry.

RUBY’S

love of cattle began at birth

R

UBY Canning’s love of cattle began when she was born and by age three she had a Simmental stud established in her name. The Victorian teenager grew up on her family’s 364 hectare property, “Maverick”, at Inverleigh, and Mavstar Simmental stud was established for her by her grandparents, Peter and Agnes Schembri, when she was just a toddler. Fast forward 14 years, and today Ruby is a force to be reckoned with in the stud cattle world. Ruby was named the 2016 Australasian Champion Junior Handler at the Launceston show in early October, and is thrilled with her new title. “It was my first time ever competing in a national competition and to win it as one of the youngest competitors is so exciting,” she said. “I was up against representatives from every state in Australia as well as New Zealand.” Ruby has been competing in junior paraders’ competitions since she was eight years old, and started junior judging at the same age. She won the Victorian Champion Junior Handler at last year’s Melbourne Royal Show, and this year she was given the honour of judging at the Bathurst Show. “I co-judged the school paraders’ competition with my mum, as well as the junior judging which had 80 competitors,” Ruby said. “I also judged a few breeds at the show, including the Murray Greys,” she said. Ruby also has a thriving photography business, which has seen her appointed the official photographer for both the Melbourne and Adelaide Shows for the last two years.

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SIMMENTAL SUMMER 2016

“I started taking a few photos around the farm, and people told me I had a real eye for animal photography,” she said. She started her own business, Mavstar Photography, in 2012, and specialises in livestock, show ring and rural photography. “I now take stud cattle photos at shows for individual clients and breed societies including Simmentals, Murray Grey and Red Angus,” Ruby said. Ruby now co-owns Mavstar Simmentals with her 12 year old brother, Jacob, and they currently have 30 breeding females in their stud. “We mostly use homebred sires from the family property, and do import semen also,” she said. “In 2014, I bred, owned and halterbroke Senior Champion Simmental cow at both the Melbourne and Geelong Royal Shows.” She has also been accepted into Lincoln University in New Zealand to study for her Bachelor of Agricultural Science next year, and just this week, Ruby was announced as the recipient of the Simon Gubbins Scholarship for 2017, awarded to young passionate people involved in the beef cattle industry who are studying at Lincoln.

By Linda Mantova