A young Wagga vet has her chance at statewide and national recognition after she was this month nominated for the prestigious Rural Achievers award.
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Dione Howard joins seven other finalists for the award, which will be announced at the 2020 Sydney Royal Easter Show.
If successful, Ms Howard will be named as the 2020 Ambassador for the Rural Achievers program.
A sixth-generation farmer herself, in recent years the 25-year-old has graduated Charles Sturt University and become a qualified district vet with the Riverina Local Land Services.
Her nomination is in recognition of her work in staving off livestock diseases in the eastern Riverina.
"It's mostly disease investigation and keeping primary produce safe from notifiable and exotic diseases," Ms Howard said.
Although the likelihood of diseases is an ever-present fear for livestock, Ms Howard and her team do face additional challenges in dry times.
"[Livestock disease] is pretty well a constant," she said.
"We have been working hard with farmers to make sure nutrition and feeding are being done right during the drought."
Outside her challenging day-job, Ms Howard has also spent years volunteering her time with various state and national agricultural ventures.
She is currently actively volunteering with the NSW Young Farmers guild through the Youth Voice Leadership program.
"As part of the team we do a lot of educating schools on agricultural issues, mostly in metro areas," she said.
Ms Howard was also named the 2018 youth ambassador for Wool Producers Australia.
Joining Ms Howard in flying the flag for the region is fellow nominees Allister Clarke from Finley and Mitchell Dwyer from Cowra.
"I'm up against some very talented young people, [but] to gain the title and be the NSW recipient and then to attend at a national level would be an honour," she said.
"Representing the state would be an honour, but I'm also looking forward to meeting the other nominees."
Having nominated herself in October, and progressed to the interview stage in November, Ms Howard admits she was more than a little excited to hear of her nomination this week.
"This certainly has a great reputation in helping young people become strong leaders in agriculture," she said.
"That's why I wanted to be up for it, I want to expand my professional and personal horizons."