Lambex – White Suffolks Young Guns Competition

A NEW, national competition highlighting the huge depth of talent and knowledge in the youth of the Australian lamb industry will be a feature of LambEx 2014.

The new event is sponsored by the Australian White Suffolk Association and involves young people sharing their experiences, project, research, study, thoughts or ideas on the whole lamb value chain.

Entrants in the ‘Building the lamb value chain of the future with the Young Guns’ competition must submit a one-slide PowerPoint and one-page document on a lamb industry topic. A selection panel will choose 12 finalists who will receive complementary admission to LambEx 2014 and be invited to develop a laminated, hard-copy poster. They will deliver a three-minute presentation to the panel and their finalist peers at the conference.

There are three categories for the competition – high school and undergraduate students; honours, masters and PhD students; and early career professionals (30 years old or younger at July 10, 2014.

The winner of each of the three sections will be interviewed in a panel session on-stage in front of the LambEx audience and will each receive a $400 prize.

Young Guns competition convenor, and LambEx committee member, Bruce Hancock says the scope for content development is huge.

“There are so many facets to the Australian lamb value chain and young people are learning about or contributing to it in every aspect,” he said.

“Topics that could be covered include projects with on-farm producer groups or research, development and extension, genetics, animal production, pasture and grazing management, marketing, or social and cultural aspects.

“There are also young people doing some great work in the environment, welfare, health, communication, and e-technology sectors, as well as a whole raft of off-farm production stages, such as transport, processing, storage, retail, food service, new product development and exports.

“The sky is the limit and we’ve made the scope broad to give everyone the opportunity to submit a topic of their interest.

“The deadline for the first round – the PowerPoint and Word submissions – is Monday, April 14, so entrants will need to get cracking to get them in on time.”

Australian White Suffolk Association Council member and LambEx representative Andrew Heinrich says the competition is a fantastic way to recognise the ‘young guns’ coming up through the industry.

“The association is really excited to be able to be part of LambEx and particularly to be involved in the youth of the lamb industry,” he said.

“I attended the previous conference in Bendigo with a bus load of South Australians, including many young people, and it was great to see there are a lot of young farmers out there excited about the prime lamb industry and keen to learn and be innovative.

“We want to recognise their contribution to the industry to date and encourage them as they build their own careers to ensure the lamb industry has many young people excited and enthused about their future.

“Entrants are encouraged to get cracking on their submissions and industry mentors and supporters are encouraged to play their part by tapping our young guns on the shoulder and giving them support.”