Claudia Kirton was just 10 when she decided she wanted to enter the spring lamb show in Tamworth in 2019.
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Today, despite being in one of the worst droughts on record and a cyclone smashing her Walcha family's property just before Christmas, she not only stuck to her plan but won the day.
The Walcha girl's efforts won the title of the champion pen of lambs at Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange in front of some of the industry's best producers, buyers and livestock agents.
This earned her the JV Goodwin Memorial Shield.
And after the pen was sold, she and dad Angus decided to given $1000 of the proceeds to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service (WRHS).
Producing the champion pen under such tough conditions, and still making a donation, was "testimony to the calibre of people they are", one agent said.
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Mr Kirton said the 90-100kg winning lambs were specifically targeted at the show and had been on feed all year.
"They were very different to a commercial enterprise, at a considerable cost to produce, but it was really a project for Claudia and something to focus on in the drought."
Some of that cost was recouped when their agent, Davidson Cameron & Co, sold the lambs for $346 a head.
As part of their prize, the family also pocketed cash and products from various sponsors.
They decided to donate to the chopper in what a spokesperson described as "a remarkable display of generosity".
Agent Simon Burke said it was all a fantastic result, given what the Kirton partnership - Claudia, her brother Henry, Angus and wife Lisa - had been through.
"After the cyclone ... their property looked like a war zone - I've never seen carnage like it," he said.
"On top of that, they've had a horrendous drought.
"So, for them to win, and then make a significant donation to the WRHS, really is testimony to the calibre of people they are."
The light trade (40-44.5kg) category title went to Janet Anderson of the property Bobby Byrne, Garoo.
The medium trade category (45-49.5kg) winners were Bernard, Courtney, Paul and Elaine McCulloch of Ripley Pastoral Co, Garoo.
A McCulloch family spokesman said the nine inches of rain this year was well below their annual average of 28 inches, but some early-March storms meant they'd been able to get some crop out of the ground.
Their winning first-cross lambs were weaned onto lucerne and then oats, and hadn't seen any grain.
Thomas Foods International's Andrew Jackson was one of three judges.
He said the drought "has taught people how to feed - and that is the biggest by-product of the drought".
The show and sale is an annual Tamworth Livestock Selling Agents Association event that is held on the first Monday in spring.
Now in its 11th year, it honours the late Jason Goodwin, remembered as a great sheep man and agent.
