Waroona farmer Jacob Walmsley part of the Western Australian team in 2021 Australian Young Farmer Challenge

A Waroona farmer was part of the Western Australian team which competed in the 2021 Australian Young Farmer Challenge held in October. Jacob Walmsley was named in the team after being the South West region’s rural ambassador at this year’s Perth Royal Show. The 24-year-old competed alongside Royal Agricultural Society rural ambassador Kelly Gorter from Wagin, Josh Antonio from Northam and Ashton Hagboom from Dowerin in the nation-wide competition over Zoom. Mr Walmsley said it was an honour to be involved in the Young Farmer Challenge. “It was really good,” he said. “It was very closely contested and all teams did really well.” “There was very little difference between all of us and we were all very knowledgable in our different sections.” Teams normally would come together at one of the country’s royal shows and compete in a range of on-farm challenges, but this year’s event consisted of four trivia rounds due to border restrictions. Each team was able to pick a topic for the challenge, with the WA side choosing sheep and answering questions such as “what year were Merinos brought into WA?” This was the first year WA entered a team in the challenge and the first year there was a team from each State. The four WA competitors dialled in from across Western Australia and finished second in the event just a single point behind New South Wales.