Australian success at World Young Shepherds competition in France

Recently returned from France, the 25 year-old Yass stockwoman competed in the World Young Shepherds competition, Ovinpiades Mondiales, and finished as the top female and second overall.

The competition bought together 28 competitors from 19 countries with strong sheep farming traditions, including Argentina, Canada, Chile, Togo, Belgium, France and the UK.

"It was amazing having everyone working in the same industry but in different countries," she said.

"We're all like minded people coming together and it was incredible to achieve the results that we achieved but it was also just an amazing opportunity to meet so many great people and learn about the French culture and the industry in a different country."

The competition involved six tasks, all held on different farms across rural France, with the final presentation held at Bergerie Nationale in Rambouillet, an agricultural training centre and model sheep farm with a history dating back to Louis XVI.

The tasks included shearing, foot pairing, lamb fat scoring, drafting, a ewe health assessment and an electric fencing challenge.

Ms Horton said judges were very particular for the foot pairing challenge.

"We had to make sure we were trimming the feet to the French standard," she said.

For the ewe health assessment competitors were required to catch a ewe out of the mob and assess them from head to toe.

"That was a really interesting challenge because that was possibly the most relevant to all the competitors because as much as some people are working with shedding shape, or Merinos, or meat sheep we all have to make sure that their health is up to scratch," she said.

Ms Horton said the electric fencing task was challenging.

"We had this with weird French electric netting stuff, essentially like electric ringlock," she said.

"Really tricky stuff to handle but both of us Aussies had a really good run and fortunately we were able to get it up and get it down and rolled up in a good time which helped with our end result."

Ms Horton said it was an incredible experience.

"Each of the regions welcomed us into their region as we were competing - it was really amazing," she said.

"It felt like they were really celebrating their product, their industry and their young people, which is something that as Australians, I believe, we can take away and use that as a learning."

Ms Horton said the French had a lot of respect for their farmers and for young people coming into the industry, making it a really positive place to be, which she said was the biggest learning opportunity to bring back to Australia.

"If we want young people to come into our industry we need to make it a really positive place to be and we need to start respecting and celebrating our farmers for the work they do to feed the country," she said.

"Sometimes agriculture is not always career path that's overly respected by the wider population and I think that needs to change."

Ms Horton was selected to compete after being announced a 2023 Peter Westblade scholar.

Before heading to France, she spent five weeks on New Zealand's South Island visiting seven studs in the main sheep regions of Central Otago, the Marlborough, Mackenzie country and Canterbury, as part of her scholarship.

She also attended the Central Otago two-tooth ewe competition, which involved 18,000 maiden ewes across 12 properties, and visited the PGG Wrightson Woolstore, Schneider and the Merino New Zealand Company.

Ms Horton said it a big learning she took away from the trip was how breeder strengthen their stud flocks by the way they conduct testing.

"In New Zealand they have a lot of issues with worms and feet issues," she said.

"What they do is they put their stud shape under challenges to essentially make them get the feet issues, and then they select the sheep that can withstand those conditions.

"So they are selecting for sheep, with resistance to feet issues, and then selecting for sheep with resistance to worm burden."

Ms Horton said she also enjoyed seeing the quality of their wools in the high rainfall environments but also acknowledged the role Australian genetics had played.

"I also respect that the fact that Australian genetics went into form the base of a lot of good Merino studs in New Zealand," she said.

"So it was really good in both sides from an educational point of view, from an understanding of how our genetics went into assist the foundation of their studs, and also amazing networking opportunities - they are the best people over there."

Originally from the Western Australia's wheatbelt, Ms Horton moved to Tasmania during high school where her love for the sheep and wool industry was fostered.

"I have some extremely solid mentors in Tassie who encouraged my passion into sheep and wool," she said.

Ms Horton then jumped to the mainland working on a fine wool Merino property in western Victoria, before coming to NSW and is now based on a sheep property at Yass.

She will be heading to Wyvern Station in the Riverina in July during their busy period and after that would see where things lead but for the next five years wants to be based at a Merino stud with a good commercial operation, or for a commercial operation in NSW to build her sheep and wool networks in the state.

"That is the beauty of NSW - it is so sheep dense in places and I'm really enjoying getting around as much of it as I can and learning the different areas and how sheep are suited to different areas," she said.

In the long term Ms Horton said she wanted to use her experience in an industry role.

"I'm very, very passionate about sheep classing and would really like that to be part of my long term plan," she said.

"I'm just passionate about helping people achieve their breeding objectives and essentially make more from the sheep they're already running - increased productivity and make more dollars per head."

The other Australian competitor in the Ovinpiades Mondiales, South Australia's Jack Grundy, finished fourth.