At just 24 years of age, Will Schilling has already achieved a lot of success in the agricultural sector.
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This year, the Driscoll McIlree & Dickinson (DMD) stock agent was a Victorian Young Auctioneers Finalist, won supreme long wool ewe at Bendigo Sheep Show and supreme wool breed ewe at Adelaide Royal Show.
Mr Schilling is a busy young man, working full time in his stock agent role and spending all his spare time on the property he has purchased near Dimboola working to improve his border leicester stud.
Raised on a farm at Glenlee, between Nhill and Jeparit, Mr Schilling was always interested in farming and left school at 16 to pursue shearing.
"I always loved being in shearing sheds and was shearing for a few years and I realised I was either going to shear until I was 50-years-old and broken or I could take on the opportunity at DMD," Mr Schilling said.
"So I jumped at the chance to work at DMD because I figured I could learn a whole heap of new skills and I knew sheep would always still need to be shorn if things didn't work out."
He said working as a stock agent has felt natural to him because livestock and animals are his passion.
"Animals and livestock is a passion for me and always have been. I have always been around them, I have always been an animal lover and sheep are one of my favourites so it helps they are also profitable," he laughed.
"I enjoy going to different people's places and meeting people and seeing how everyone does little things differently. I really don't see myself not being a stock agent in the long run. I like running my own stud and would like a bit more land as well but I just really enjoy the stock agent side of things.
"I have plenty of time to sit back and see what happens. I work with Steve Kelly and he has been great for me and I am very lucky to have a mentor like him because there isn't much about the industry he doesn't know."
Mr Schilling started his border leicester stud when he was in high school.
"When I was 13 or 14 the stud thing came along. It really has become a massive passion," he said.
"The genetic game is so interesting and I really enjoy looking at genetic lines and trying to work out how to improve things. More people are looking at putting border leicester rams over their merino ewes now which is great. As a stud, it is not a huge breed in this area and I started it because I could see there wasn't many around here."
Until this year, Mr Schilling had enjoyed showing his stud but hadn't seen huge success.
"This year I have done the Bendigo, Hamilton and Adelaide Royal Shows and I am really enjoying the showing side," he said.
"I never had huge success until this year but at Bendigo where I had a ewe that won supreme long wool ewe out of 1500 sheep.
"I took her to Adelaide and she won supreme wool breed ewe out of more than 3000 ewes so it was great to have that success this year."
Mr Schilling took rams to be sold at a national ram sale in Horsham a few months ago two of his rams sold for $7500.
"The first year I went and took a ram he come about 4th out of 40 rams in judging and when the sale was done he topped the sale at $11,000. I have had commercial success, now I am having show and genetic success and improvement," he said.
"I was at the Edenhope First Cross Ewe Sale recently and people who have been buying ewes off me for six years had their ewes break the record at one point so it is great to see the success coming to people who are using my genetics."
Mr Schilling is very grateful for the achievements he has had at such a young age and encourages other young people to pursue their passions and work hard.
"I work as a stock agent 8 to 10 hours a day and then the first thing I do when I go home is go around the sheep but it doesn't feel like hard work because I enjoy it so much," he said.
"I am grateful for the success I have had and to everyone who has helped me. It is like anything, if you love it and put work into it you normally reap the rewards.
"And just because you aren't interested in, or doing very well at school doesn't mean you can't be successful. As long as you can find something you are interested in and work hard at it you can still do well."
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