2023 SA Junior Heifer Expo entries close in record time

Online entries opened on Monday night for the event to be held at the Adelaide Showground from July 17 to 20 and by later the same night they had closed.

Last year the Expo reached its capacity in about a week but for many years, entries have been open for nearly a month.

Expo coordinator Natalie Hann said it was great to see the event's strong popularity and so much interest from youth in agriculture, but it was also unfortunate that some young people wanting to attend were likely to miss out.

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"We already have quite a few on the wait list so we need to sit down and work out what we can do," she said.

"We will try to accommodate as many as possible and will hopefully have a few more than last year (170 entrants) but there are a lot of things to consider including the accommodation for the entrants and how many animals we can fit in the shed."

The Expo is open to youth aged 8-24 years from across Australia with each entrant required to look after their individual animal, a heifer or steer, for the four days.

It aims to foster the next generation in the beef industry and give them a great few days of fun, learning and making new friends.

The event's education program is always highly regarded with topics from marketing to nutrition and junior judging.

Mrs Hann says while the topics remain largely the same each year there are always new presenters to give entrants a different take on the information.

This year will see the return of Breed'n'Betsy, a simulator that helps entrants learn about bovine reproduction and how to artificially inseminate a cow.

Also new to the program is Thomas Foods International's farm assurance manager Mark Inglis, who will present on Meat Standards Australia program and how to produce quality beef.

Mrs Hann says there is always a strong career focus in the program.

"Ag is such a big broad industry and there are so many opportunities for young people not just working on a farm but all the other inputs that come with that," she said.

"If we can expose young people to as many of these opportunities hopefully they can think 'that is something that they may like to do' or make a contact and then feel comfortable ringing one of the presenters up later."

The major prize awarded to the senior champion herdsperson will again be a bursary valued at $6500 sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions and the Show Society Foundation.

The recipient can use the money to travel or further their industry knowledge.

But Mrs Hann says it is about so much more than the prizes.

"There may be 30 or 40 entrants that win prizes but even more importantly there will be 170 or 180 who will all go away with some extra knowledge or have made another friend," she said.

"There are so many people that have either competed as young people themselves or had children that have competed and they have stayed connected with the event - it is part of their annual calendar for the second week of the July school holidays to be in Adelaide.

"It is testament to the quality of the event that it has been running for so long and that people and sponsors have continued to see value in supporting it."