The promise of a career and lifestyle in agriculture has drawn Macs Rubain in the same direction since he was a boy, growing up on his parents' hobby farm on the outskirts of Camden.
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His father bred trotting horses and he fell in love with the rural lifestyle.
However, it was a mentorship under stud dairy breeder Dr John Quin, Orana Jerseys at Menangle, that set him on a path that resonates with him today - furthering his education in the farming sector.
As a first-year student at Charles Sturt University, he is studying for a degree in agriculture business management while working part time milking cows near Wagga Wagga.
Mr Rubain's emerging skills as an assessor of dairy cattle came to the fore at this year's Sydney Royal Dairy Show, where the student was awarded champion junior judge - for the second year in a row, scoring 196 points out of a possible 200, one point less than last year's result.
Dr Quin says the scorecard reflects an "extraordinary" individual.
"Those scores in junior judging were the highest we've ever had," he said with some pride, having nurtured Mr Rubain's skills along with those of other student-helpers who have milked cows at his dairy.
"Macs gives encouragement to today's youth that there is still a career in agriculture," he says.
In fact another student helper Jessica Blachura, from Macarthur Anglican School at Cobbity, undertook a degree in agricultural business management and she now works in the field.
It was Ms Blachura's suggestion that Mr Rubain study the same degree to further his agricultural career.
"Agriculture is not possible without farmers being able to protect their assets," says Ms Blachura, 28, now the national portfolio operations manager for 360 Underwriting Solutions.
"I love my job so much. It is a good say to stay connected with agriculture and I love how I get to talk about farming every day."
Meanwhile Dr Quin, an immunologist, learned to love Jersey cattle through his aunt Blanche Shirley at Galston, and credits an infusion of American blood in boosting the breed's yield along with better payment for milk components for giving producers confidence again in their industry.
Jersey cows at Orana are selected for functionality and "not necessarily pretty", he says.
"There was a time in the late 1980s when the breed was in danger of going out of favour because of a focus on being pretty," Dr Quin recalls. "But the cows were small and didn't produce enough milk."
Students have been helping at Orana on weekends and holidays for years but few have had the head for judging like Mr Rubain.
"Judging involves talking in front of everyone and lots of people are quite reluctant," Dr Quin says.
"Macs has a trust in himself and a trust in what he has learned."
Part of his dairy chores, along with good friend and St Gregory's school mate Joel Offord, was to select cows for show, a task that required a judge's head.
"I like being connected to agriculture," Mr Rubain says. "It sure is easier to get up at 4am to milk cows than it is to get up at 8am for class."
Dairying at Wagga has offered a learning curve for the agricultural student, seeing how an enterprise operates in a drier climate with more reliance on nutritional inputs.
He also judges beef, having shown cattle since a student at St Gregory's College at Campletown and fed his own led steers, an Angus with Hardhat blood, agisted at Dr Quin's farm.
He entered his steer at this year's Sydney Royal, and competed in the state titles of the junior beef judging, for the second time, having qualified locally from a field of 60 contenders. However, his understanding of the dairy breed seems to be sharper than it is for beef and his success has led him to be invited to judge locally - first at the Berry calf show, then the society's dairy show and from there to Robertson.
"At the end of the day I have learned that judging is about understanding structural soundness," Mr Rubain says.
"The first thing I look at is how dairy cows walk. Basic structure is most important. There's not a lot of stall-housed cows in Australia and they need to walk. I look at it practically.
"In a class of milkers I will look at the udder next," he says, noting the need for teat alignment and strength of the ligament that does this, but which is no less important than good fore-udder attachment.
"It's about weighing up which is stronger - fore udder or teat ligament," he says.
"It's rare to find that cow."
Other factors that rate in importance include top line, hip-to-pin, mammary veins and, of course, capacity through the middle of her body.
"It's about the barrel for intake of feed and water; a wide muzzle, and her heart-room to supply more blood."
Mr Rubain admits his head somewhat spins when he changes from judging beef, as he did during the junior competition at Sydney Royal, to casting opinion on dairy.
"With beef it's about muscle and fat cover; heavier bone and fleshing ability. With dairy it's about finesse. We're looking for clean-boned animals suited for milk production. If growth is going into thick bone and fat it won't produce as much milk."
