AT age 16 and already a veteran of parading cattle at country shows and the Perth Royal, Jai Thomas, Murdoch, is maintaining a family tradition.
His father Kim and grandfather Bob Fawcett before him, both showed Australia’s own dairy cattle breed, the Illawarra.
For as long as he can remember, September always included a week spent with as much time as he could immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the Royal Show at the Claremont Showgrounds, helping his father prepare and show Illawarra cattle.
While he continues the showing tradition, Jai has broken ranks with his grandfather and father and shows Shorthorn cattle from his own registered stud, JT Country Life.
“When I was little I used to help dad (prepare and show Illawarras) but as I got older I wanted to do my own thing,” Jai explained.
“It took about two years for me and dad to decide what breed we were going to show and Shorthorns were improving, so we decided on them.
“Also, they’re very basic like Illawarras,” he said.
While he won the Royal Show junior dairy cattle parader award three years in a row 2012-14 and won junior dairy cattle judge in 2014, since 2015 he has shown his own cattle under the JT Country Life Shorthorns banner.
Jai started the stud when he was 13 with help and guidance from his father who is farm manager at Murdoch University, looking after a variety of animals.
He has come from a slightly different farm background to most other teenagers in the cattle lanes at the showgrounds.
While he has had similar experiences to sons growing up working on family farms, for Jai there has always been an intrinsic connection between animals and education.
“I’ve grown up around animals – cattle, sheep, pigs, horses – on the farm at Murdoch,” he said.
“I’m mainly interested in cattle because we’ve been showing them.
“I first came to the show as a baby and started helping dad from about four and each year helping more,” he said.
The connection between animals and education has not been lost on the year 11 student at All Saints College, Bull Creek.
Once he completes his secondary education Jai hopes to enrol at Murdoch for a veterinary science degree.
His ultimate aim is to be a large animal vet in a rural area, owning his own farm and breeding Shorthorn cattle on it.
Owning his own farm and operating his Shorthorn stud from it will be another break in ranks with his father and grandfather who have managed farms for others.
Jai’s grandfather was farm manager at Whitby Falls hostel near Mundijong which served as the State’s longest operating facility, caring for people with mental illness.
Murdoch University leased the 203 hectare heritage-listed farm property from the National Trust in 2013 to support expansion of its research and teaching facilities in veterinary science, animal science, environmental science, forensic and water-related courses.
Jai’s family lease land at nearby Serpentine where he and his father run a small commercial herd along with the breeding cattle.
“We’ve got about 30 shorthorns and we show about a quarter of them, we pick the best ones at the time, whatever is looking good,” Jai said.
“Depending on how busy we are, we’ll go to country shows like Waroona and Busselton.
“Two years ago we had an interbreed cow and we did all the shows – they’re good the one-day shows.
“We’re trying to breed quiet bulls with good muscle coverage, and fat as well.”
Jai is interested in the science of genetics and is involved in the selection of embryos and semen from interstate and overseas to try to strengthen the characteristics they want.
“Dad and I pick the genetics,” he said.
“We’ve got a Canadian embryo on the ground at the moment and we’ve imported semen from America.
“We’ve also got embryos from Gerald Spry (Sprys Shorthorns in Wagga Wagga) over east.
“We’ve got a couple of cows from Phil Burnett (Crathes Park stud, Vasse, and Mr Burnett is president of the WA branch of the Shorthorn Society of Australia) and Alex Burrow (Narralda Shorthorn stud and a life member of the Shorthorn Society of Australia), they’re Shorthorn breeders down south and they’ve really helped us out a lot.
“When we were starting our stud, Gerald Spry and Phil were the main ones who helped us out and introduced us to people in genetics.
“Now we want to start selling embryos and semen from our cattle.”
They have some excellent prospects with which to start in their own small herd.
Among the ribbons won at this year’s IGA Perth Royal Show by Jai and his JT Country Life stud were supreme champion Shorthorn, grand and junior champion Shorthorn bull with Narralda Newbie, replicating last year’s performance with JT Country Life Mitch.
Jai also added the sash for senior champion bull this year with JT Country Life Ketut.
With his heifers and cows, Jai claimed senior champion Shorthorn female for the second year in a row with JT Country Life Legend and reserve junior champion female with JT Country Life Nala – also for the second year in a row but with a different heifer.
He also won the Shorthorn breeder’s group of three award for the fourth year in a row.
In 2016 Jai won all breeds supreme junior champion beef breeds with JT Country Life Legend and all breeds supreme senior champion beef bull with JT Country Life Ketut.
That year Jai also won senior champion Shorthorn female and grand champion Shorthorn female with Crathes Marrington, while he won the Maurie Doyle Memorial Herdsman’s Trophy.
In his first year showing his own cattle, Jai won junior champion female with Crathes Thelma and grand champion bull and junior champion bull with JT Country Life Ketut, in the Shorthorn judging.
When asked to nominate his interests, Jai can only come up with cattle – breeding, raising, preparing and showing.
He spends most weekends and school holidays at the lease block and admits to putting a lot of time into training and grooming his show animals.
“When we are breaking them in, every weekend we’ll stand them up and lead them and train their hair to go the right way,” Jai said.
He said they used no inducements.
“We just make them do it until they get it right,” he said.
Watching Jai – of average height and weight for a still growing teenager – convince a Shorthorn bull weighing 1056kg to stand up, it is obvious the training works.
But Jai has not completely deserted his dairy showing and judging roots.
Earlier this year as national dairy cattle judging champion, Jai and other State representatives helped win the Keast Shield for WA.
The shield, won on the aggregate of points awarded at the final of national junior judging and parading competitions run by agricultural society branches in each State and in New Zealand, was presented on the main arena by WA Governor Kim Beazley on the opening night of this year’s IGA Perth Royal Show.
Jai’s journey on that path started last year at the Brunswick Show, then at last year’s Royal Show and finished with a win in the final at the Adelaide Royal Show early last month.
“We (the winning State junior dairy judge representatives and a competitor from New Zealand) had to judge a class of Illawarra heifers, a class of Jersey cows and then an interbreed group,” he said.
But despite the national win in junior dairy judging, Jai has no plans to switch breeds and continues to see Shorthorns as his future.
