A young Quairading farmer is flying the flag for the next generation

From a young age, Zarah Squiers knew that farming on her family's Quairading property was what she wanted to do.

The 19-year-old works with her family, where they run Poll Dorset, White Suffolk and Prime SAMM studs, join 2000 Merino ewes and have a sizeable cropping program.

Working alongside her dad Sascha, grandfather Chris and uncle Adrian, she's involved in every part of the operation, from shearing stud sheep and checking lambing mobs multiple times a day, to weighing, tagging and recording important data to track bloodlines and improve genetics.

"It's a big task but I really enjoy it and it's just something different that I get to experience and follow dad in," Ms Squiers said.

"From a young age, I've always known that farming is where I want to be and being on this farm specifically, just waiting to continue what my dad and his dad have put into it and his dad (my great grandfather) before that."

Ms Squiers said it was a privilege to grow up on the land, seeing all the processes and how hard her parents and the farming industry in general works.

"We see lots of things other people don't see," she said.

Ms Squiers remembers early days in the shearing shed with her dad, granddad, uncles and aunties, helping out and seeing how things are done.

Despite being around the shearing industry on her family farm, the young gun began her shearing journey at the WA College of Agriculture - Cunderdin.

"Being at the ag school and having Wayne Laird as our shearing TO (technical officer) and our sheep TO, he was always very good at getting us down the shearing shed and having a go and he was the first person to teach me how to shear small sheep," Ms Squiers said.

"Ever since that day, I've loved it.

"We went to shows and I competed in the shearing and the wool handling competitions and this definitely helped grow my knowledge and confidence in that industry as well."

Enjoying the physical work, Ms Squiers has contested many shearing competitions, including at the Wagin Woolorama, Williams Gateway Expo and Perth Royal Show, as well as smaller shows such as Katanning, Boddington, Quindanning and Corrigin.

For the first time last year, she contested the Sports Shear Australia National Shearing Competition at Katanning, finishing third in the novice shearing final.

"The nationals in Katanning was awesome, there were so many people and the atmosphere was great," she said.

"In competitions, as a novice shearer, we sheared two in a heat and then two in the final, so it's four a show, so it's not many - but in a day on the farm, I can get probably 40 ewes and 50 lambs.

"I'm still very novice, still learning, but it's really good to just have my parents see that I can help out on the farm and my dad's been very happy with it."He loves to see me get in and get my hands dirty and get to work."

During her time at ag college, Ms Squiers contested junior Merino, meat sheep and wool judging competitions.

"I really enjoy both the sheep and wool judging," she said.

"Ag school was really great for that, we were talked through it and it was really well explained to us and then I would just take that information all through the judging."

Being on her family's farm also allows Ms Squiers to participate in all the shows.

"Being part of the family farm, I still get the privilege and the opportunity to compete in junior judging competitions and qualify to compete in the State competitions at the Perth Royal Show," she said.

"I have won the State meat breed junior judging competitions a couple of times at Perth and this meant I got to represent WA in the national competitions in 2023 in Launceston, Tasmania and last year in Melbourne, Victoria.

"Going to the nationals was a really cool experience and a great opportunity.

"There's many different aspects to judging meat sheep, the different places they have their muscling and the different types of wool textures all play a part in how you judge a sheep.

"I got to meet lots of new people and just experience the difference in sheep over there compared to WA.

"You see the difference in their landscape and what the sheep grow off and definitely the different types of build and even different breeds of sheep in the places.

"It definitely opened my eyes and broadened my perspective - WA is not the only place that has meat sheep."

Her passion is the Merino breed and the meat and wool it produces.

She loves the Merino, saying it is an animal that creates so much from so little.

"Their wool can be used in so many different ways, clothing, blankets and all that," Ms Squiers said.

"It's something that is such a diverse thing to be used and the sheep itself can also be used in many ways."

She said the Merinos were very generational.

"They've come from a long way and they've grown in lots of ways and been used for many different things," Ms Squiers said.

"Some people have put so much effort into growing them and changing them into what they need and they all can be used for lots of different things which is always what you want."

Looking to the future, she wants to be active in the show industry, attending meetings, preparing for the shows and showing that young people are interested.

She wants to encourage more young people to be involved in the industry and prove that it has a future.

"For me, just to keep going to shows and showing that young people are still interested in doing the judging, hopefully one day I become something more like a steward at shows to help the young people and show them and educate them on how things are done," Ms Squiers said.

"Just showing that there's more young people in the industry, I think is very important to keep it going.

"We definitely need more studs and more younger people getting involved and taking over their family farms and it's just hard now because of everything that's been going on.

"I would love to see the continuation of generational farmers and to see the growth that they can make because obviously things have changed a lot."

She hopes the younger generation can work with the current generation and help with industry changes.

"For example, the electronic tags, they've come in and we never needed them and now they are in, they're going to make things a lot smoother to run hopefully," Ms Squiers said.