New event a showstopper

The Albany Show is just around the corner and promises to deliver two days of non-stop fun for families.

Besides visiting the side-show alley, and browsing through the pavilions, 11-year-old Robert Smith says everyone should come down the cattle ring and "see where their food comes from".

Robert and a group of his friends, as young as nine, have spent the last three months breaking in commercial heifers weighing up to 400kg for a new led competition at the show.

"At the start, we normally spend a day brushing them down with their heads tied high and that stops them from putting their heads down to bolt," Robert said.

The young cattle enthusiasts, including Fraser Mckee, said the work included washing, feeding and brushing down the heifers, and scratching them so they don't shiver and get used of having people near.

"At the beginning, if you tried to touch them, they would bolt away and now they are nice and quiet," he said.

Robert's mum Sheena Smith, who is on the cattle committee said the aim of the led commercial heifer competition was to allow children who had been involved in the nippers farm animal leading competition to continue.

"Unless you had a stud, you really had no option to carry on. So we created a commercial heifer class so the kids could go on and it's open to any commercial breeder," Mrs Smith said.

This year there is more than $6500 in prizes up for grabs in the stud beef and dairy competition including strainer posts, an electric fence energiser, a shed work bench, concrete trough and a hay bale ring.

There will be judging for European, British, speciality and Bos Indicus breeds and an all breeds champion.

There will also be junior beef and dairy parading and judging competitions.