A Kelmscott Senior High School school student will fly to Adelaide later in the year after winning a statewide agricultural competition.
Year 10 student Abby Fouweather is 15-years-old and competed in the WA Youth Cattle Handlers Camp on April 20-22 where handlers were tested on their skills in controlling, leading, feeding, washing and parading cattle.
The event was held at Brunswick Junction Show Grounds about two-and-a-half hours south of Perth.
Abby competed against older and more experienced students and won the Herdsman Award for the most points scored in all activities.
She was one of about 100 students who attended the camp, which included other Year 10, 11 and 12 students from KSHS.
When she found out she had won she was shocked.
“We left the event so we could get home on time,” she said.
“The next day I got an email. I was overwhelmed.”
She said her family was equally rapt with the news.
“Mum was over the moon as well, we’re all really excited about it. It was definitely worth it.”
As prize for winning the Herdsman Award Abby received an all-expenses-paid trip to Adelaide in July to compete in the South Australian Junior Heifer Expo paid for by the WA Youth Cattle Handlers Camp.
About 200 people aged between 8 to 23-years-old attend the four-day Expo each year and Abby will go up against some of the best junior livestock handlers in the country.
The top prize at the event will be a four-month scholarship study tour of North America.
Abby and her mum will be heading along with her mum and they had already sorted out much of their itinerary.
She had loved horses for years but said there was a bigger industry for handling cattle.
“Horses are a great sideline but cows are the future.”
