Teenager Shania Munro spent hours blow drying hair on Saturday morning, but it wasn't her own.
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The hair belonged to 15-month-old heifer Maple, just one of the cows she and fellow students from Sydney's Elizabeth Macarthur High School are exhibiting this weekend at the Royal Canberra Show.
Shania, 17, is one of hundreds of high school agriculture students who make the annual trek to Canberra each February to show cattle, the culmination of months of hard work back in the school agriculture plot.
Sixteen students from Elizabeth Macarthur High arrived in Canberra on Monday to begin preparation for competing in categories like School Parade, Open Parade and Junior Judging, and competing against their country counterparts.
While she's definitely into makeup and dressing up, Shania - named after the uber famous country music singer Shania Twain - says she's more than happy to swap midriff tops and high heels for jeans and boots to head out to the school agriculture yard. She's even helped birth more than a few baby cows.
"You can't really be a girly girl, you have to get dirty," she said.
"I've studied agriculture since Year 7 - I love getting involved with the animals and watching them grow up.
"I like the cows when they're about 12 months old, when they don't rely on mum as much but they're also not old enough to have an attitude yet."
Shania has visited the Royal Canberra Show every year for the past six years but says she doesn't consider showing cattle to be a fierce rivalry between city and country.
"You can't really tell who's city and who's country, we all blend in together."
Sixteen-year-old Yolande Thompson, from Narooma High School, grew up visiting coastal dairy farms owned by her family members.
She's been "obsessed with animals ever since I was little" and while her dream is to one day own her own farm, she reckons it's probably more realistic to marry into a farming family.
Narooma High offers agriculture as an elective to Year 11 and 12 students studying for the HSC, and it's the subject Yolande can't wait to get out of the classroom and get stuck into every day.
"I absolutely love animals and always have done, it might sound weird but there's something so relaxing about working with cattle," she said.
Narooma High's agriculture students are in charge of caring for one-tonne bull Masterclass, a herd of cows and sheep, and are preparing meat birds to exhibit at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in March.
While it's the ribbons and medals the students are chasing at the show, the best reward for Yolande is sharing success with her fellow students over a bowl of frozen yoghurt at Yogurtland in Belconnen mall.
"I love being in Canberra, it's so good," she said.
The Royal Canberra Show is on Saturday and Sunday 24 and 25 February at EPIC. Gates open at 8.30am both days. Highlights on Saturday include the Ultimate Strongman - The King Ape Log Lift Medley, Peppa Pig, an Autumn fashion parade and the Holden versus Ford V8 ute challenge.
For more more information and the full program head to www.canberrashow.org.au
