"I've learnt a lot from my dad and I've also picked up so much from Selwyn Donald, one of the best judges for passing on information," Hannah said.
Dad Bob, whose Sunshine Ayrshire stud produced a Royal show winner in 1991, was one of the youngest cattle judges in the country when he began at 15 and now, with 45 years' experience, his wealth of knowledge is being handed down to Hannah.
"I was taught by my mum, a well-known breeder and I've been association judge at 15 Feilding A&P Shows, with 51 calves of my own in one class," he said.
"What Hannah has achieved is amazing and it's a privilege for her to represent New Zealand in Hobart. It's quite mindblowing and I do get emotional when I see her achieving at such a high level." Hannah has been a regular at shows where she is known as Little Miss Sunshine and at school calf clubs showing Ayrshires with great results and she now selects animals to take to major shows.
"She's very keen on all aspects of showing and has been very eager to learn how to present animals in the ring, and she's recently begun entering judging competitions," said Mr Donald, a well known identity in the dairy world and a prominent showman and judge in both the Ayrshire and Holstein-Friesian show rings.
Hannah admits she feels the pressure of judging at a major dairy event.
"I was given a microphone and had to explain my reasons for selecting a particular cow. It was nerve-wracking with 50 people watching. But confidence comes with practise," she said.
In 2014 Hannah won the Frederickson Trophy for senior young handlers and in the past two years she has won the western districts young handlers competition. In October last year at the New Zealand Royal A&P Show in Hastings, Hannah was a winner again and she also took the Argyll Holsteins senior young handlers competition in Stratford. This year she has been awarded the Bell Booth prize from Ayrshire New Zealand for the person who has made a notable contribution to the breed.
But things have not been easy - she has had to battle a severe medical condition since she was 6. The condition leaves her debilitated and needing bed rest and just two days before the Dannevirke News visited she had returned home from her second major surgery in a couple of weeks.
The first was a seven-hour operation and she was then rushed back in for emergency surgery, and there's still another operation to come in August before she heads away to Hobart.
But despite her ill-health Hannah takes everything in her stride, including taking up a challenge from her parents.
"There was a particular calf she wanted and so we said to her, 'if you can lift it on to the trailer it's yours'," Nikki said. "I've never seen a kid struggle so much, but despite the calf weighing 40kg and Hannah having to step on top of the tyre rim to get the calf in, she did it."
Hannah's favourite calf is a rising 2-year-old Sunshine Burdette Alice, with the paddock name Moose.
"She's one in a million and the heaviest calf I've ever lifted," she said. " But Hannah has another special cow, Doll.
"Doll helped me get to where I am now and my confidence grew with her because she has such a strong personality, we make a special team. Doll isn't the easiest to handle, but she's had a huge role in my success, so I guess I'd have to say I've got two one-in-a-million cows."
And like all farming families, Hannah and her dad do not always agree.
"I have a different perspective on things," Bob said. "I don't interfere. What Hannah has achieved is a rare feat."
And Hannah admitted she has her own view on the world.
"People are surprised by what I can do and I've earned respect, but I'm quite a smart mouth," she said. "Going to shows is cool, we're all like family and I've been in the water trough, part of the initiation, but it took two men to get me in there."
For Hannah animals come first in her life.
"A family friend told me off because I put animals before me, but you can't do this if you don't have the passion."
But Hannah does have her girlie moments. She has been a hair model for an international competition and at the moment it is a toss up between taking on a hairdressing apprenticeship or studying farming.
"Farming is always going to be my passion, but you have to have options," she said.
However, while the decision to take her own Starshine Ayrshires stud forward or take over the family Sunshine stud, is still 12 months away, Hannah will continue to step out into the ring.
