Her commitment to improving the Victorian beef and lamb industries helped the Bendigo researcher win 2014 Rural Ambassador Award at the Royal Melbourne Show on Saturday night.

Ms Neal was selected from a field of 10 Victorian finalists and represented the Central and Upper Goulburn Group.

Through her work as a red meat industry development officer at DEPI in Bendigo, Ms Neal has managed a national development and extension project to improve lamb eating quality and lean meat yield.

Her passion for agriculture also goes beyond her professional life. 

Ms Neal uses her position on a number of agricultural societies to bring the latest research directly to producers.

She said agricultural shows provided the ideal opportunity to provide advice to producers.

"We're able to provide them with information using the data from their results at the show," Ms Neal said.

"It's great to be able to produce cattle; it's also great to use that data to help make better decisions."

In addition to her involvement with the Bendigo Show Society, she also co-ordinates the Royal Melbourne Show beef carcass competition and actively supports Angus Youth RoundUp.

She spent the early part of the show casting her eye of the carcasses, including the work of 200 students from 17 schools at the Royal Melbourne Show.

Having also won the junior equivalent of the award aged 16, Ms Neal said promoting agricultural industries to young people was one of her main focuses.

"What I'm about is supporting people to grow their knowledge, and transferring that on to others," she said.

"There are many opportunities in agricultural fields. There's so much more than just being a farmer."

Seven of the 10 finalists in the award were women, with runner-up Stephanie Muir also a researcher with DEPI, based at Warrnambool.

The Rural Ambassador Award receives $3000 for their career development and the opportunity to represent Victoria at the national finals in 2015.