Australian Lowline success at the Melbourne Royal Show was won by a stud whose owner believes the breed gave her a "new lease on life".
Rotherwood Lowline stud, Tallygaroopna, won supreme exhibit in the breed's feature show with a female - Rotherwood Precious Girl - who originally competed in the cow over 48 month class.
Rotherwood stud principal Vicki Gilbert said the win capped off an amazing journey in running the stud so far, after initially moving from the city to the country for health reasons.
"I wanted to go to the country for a better quality of life from the city," she said.
"One day I heard a bull roaring and he had a nose ring and I just fell in love with the breed from there.
"I ended up buying him and now I'm here 17 years later.
"They have given me a whole new lease on life."
Rotherwood not only took out the supreme exhibit, but also the grand champion bull sash with Rotherwood Qointreau On Ice.
Ms Gilbert described the two wins as both an honour and unique, and was particularly complementary of Precious Girl.
"I've only been in that position once before and it is amazing to feel that because that cow who won [the supreme exhibit] is very special to me," she said.
"I bottle fed her as her mum tragically died early on.
"She's never been to a show before either, so this is really an achievement."
Ms Gilbert said it was fantastic that the Australian Lowlines were the feature breed at the show and that it seemed to be "a long time" that she saw it be a feature breed at any show.
It has been more than 20 years since Australian Lowlines had a feature show at the Melbourne Royal Show itself, with healthy numbers across all classes.
While most exhibits at the show were of the black variety, Ms Gilbert said red-gened Lowlines were more a passion for her.
She hoped those Australian Lowlines that hold the red genes gathered more interest from breeders in the future.
"I've been working on getting more red Australian Lowlines as once upon a time they weren't allowed in competition as they are sometimes quite small," she said.
"There are many of them in Queensland, but I had the first of them registered here in Victoria about five years ago.
"[The red Australian Lowlines] are important to me too because I spent a lot of time to get them to a good size by planning well with genetics over time, and it's really good to see them represented here at the show."
Judge Aimee Bolton, NH Foods, Toowoomba, Qld, said it was exciting to see such great representation of the breed at the Melbourne Royal Show.
"The Australian Lowlines have their own niche market and to put themselves on a pedestal and are now exporting genetics all over the world," she said.
"When you see these two animals out in front of you today, you can't help but want one of them yourself."
She complemented Precious Girl as being "the complete cow".
"She was in the oldest cow class today but she is a cow that is still sharp and she's quite fresh, is looking young and has a perfect young calf beside her," she said.
"There are many of those feminine and fertility traits, as well as still carrying a fair bit of meat over that top line and right down into the hindquarter."
