Most parents would have great difficulty convincing their 11-year-old son to join them for four days of visiting Hereford stud farms – but that was not the case for Lorraine and Ian Clements.

Eleven-year-old Jamie Clements with a pen of in-calf heifers on Hukaroa Stud, owned by Dean and Lisa Hansen and Peter and Glennis Hansen near Te Kauwhata.

It wasn't just playing hooky from school which convinced Jamie to be part of the 2014 National Hereford Herd Tour. He really likes Herefords and wants to become a breeder himself, and sometime soon.

Jamie was by far the youngest of the 108 people on the Gallagher Coast to Coast National Hereford Herd Tour, organised by the South Auckland Hereford Club, but he could talk cattle with the best of them. That's probably partly because he's the third generation Clements to take the tour of 14 stud farms. His grandparents Brian and Jean were there too, so Jamie has a wealth of knowledge to draw on.

'I first got interested in Herefords when I wanted to spend more time with my dogs Max and Tip, but they were always out with dad rounding up cattle,” says Jamie, from Matapouri Hereford Stud near Whangarei.

The dogs just love working the cattle and aren't afraid of them; so when began they spending more time with the dogs, Jamie had to spend time with the cattle too. In 2008 Jamie led a calf for the first time at the Whangarei A&P Show, winning third place and gaining an appetite for learning more about what makes a winning calf, and how is best to show them. Recently, Jamie attended a bull sale with granddad Brian and helped him decide which bull to buy. He saw a few during the tour he'd like to buy, but is yet to convince his parents (or maybe grandparents), to come up with the finances. Ian says his son is also applying his computer skills to researching and learning about Hereford breeding and pedigrees.