Yet again Scots All Saints Cattle Team participated at the Royal Bathurst Royal Show. The team finished the season with a bang with some amazing results. The Royal Bathurst Show is always a rush to get ready for as it is so close to the Sydney Royal Easter Show but with hard work and dedication the team put a wonderful group of our stud limousin cattle together.
We exhibited 10 of our stud Limousin’s including cows and calves, some young heifers and a steer.
In the school classes, our animals dominated, taking out both Junior and Senior Champion and Reserve Champion females. For some of the heifers, it was their first show, so their behaviour in the first classes was a little challenging, but I was proud of our younger students who handled them so well.
We then exhibited them in the open classes and again dominated, taking out Junior Champion, Reserve Champion and Senior Reserve Champion female.
The heifer jackpot class was a new class this year and we entered six of our College-bred stud heifers. There were a total of 25 in the class, and when the top five were selected, two of our own heifers were up there! This cemented that our breeding programs are heading in the right direction.
Many of our students won awards in both the Junior Paraders and Junior Judging. In the paraders, we had students place, including Marcus Wythe and Lily Moore placing first in their heats, Jessica Mills, Milly Nevill, Teagan Chapman, Taylor Kleinschafer, and Grace Moore all being placed second in their heats and Laura Moorhead, Hugh Cleton, Poppy Starr all placing third. In the finals, Lily Moore went on to take our Reserve Champion Parader.
In the Junior Judging, the results were outstanding. Many of our students made the finals which meant they had to do a ‘speech’ explaining why they placed a group of four heifers. This is very intimidating in front of a large crowd. Each and every one of them did an amazing job. In the seniors, Lily Moore placed first, Grace Moore placed second, and Philippa Webb and Taylor Kleinschafer both were awarded Highly Commended in the junior section.
The ‘fitting challenge’ is always so much fun – a team of students are to ‘dress up’ an animal and get themselves ready for the ring in a timed event. Lily Moore, Marcus Wythe, Patrick McKiernan and Taylor Kleinschafer did a tremendous job placing 2nd against some professionals!
One of the highlights of the weekend was the amazing results in the Young Rural Achievers Awards. This involves the students submitting a resume and letter and then having an interview by a panel prior to the show. Scots All Saints took out all the Champions in three of the four sections, which is a phenomenal result.
The results were as follows:
PRIMARY
CHAMPION Rory Hutchinson
JUNIOR
12-14 Boys
2nd Charlie McKiernan
3rd Marcus Stanley
HC Stirling Miller
12-14 Girls
1st Lily McKiernan
2nd Monique Graham
3rd Piper Henry
HC Matilda Penfold
CHAMPION Lily McKiernan
INTERMEDIATE
15-16 Boys
1st Marcus Wythes
2nd Patrick McKiernan
3rd Joshua Inwood
HC Harry Croker
15-16 Girls
1st Poppy Starr
2nd Grace Moore
HC Taylor Kleinschafer SASC CHAMPION Poppy Starr
SENIOR
17-19 years
2nd Philippa Webb
3rd Lilly Moore
HC Hannah Gill
I am extremely proud of the entire team, both students and cattle!! Our younger members proved the future of the team is secure, but it was also bittersweet to have our last show with our phenomenal Year 12 students. Words cannot express how much these students have contributed to this program; coming along to Bathurst Royal to ‘help out’ the younger students just shows their amazing character.
Special thanks Oliviah Grimshaw, Jessica Mills, Hannah Dunn, Hannah Gill, Ruby Dunn and Victoria Webb.
We are now looking ahead to where we will be exhibiting at EKKA (Brisbane Royal in August) and the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza in Scone (October).
Mrs Libby Dawes, Director of Agricultural Studies and Equestrian
