On the weekend, our Cattle Show Team had their first show of the season at the Blayney Show. It is always a steep learning curve for our new members – both students and cattle!
The day started very early (in the dark), and we all loaded our 22 steers (and one heifer) onto the trucks. This year they loaded extremely well.
We arrived and spot washed the cattle getting ready for our classes. Our steers once again dominated the classes, which is due to the amazing support of our breeders and the hard work that goes into preparing them by our students.
To mention all of the ribbon winners would take a long time, but our main achievements were our Grey ‘Sassy’ heifer bred by the Kirk Family and paraded by Fraser Gill, winning the Lightweight class, and our three Angus bred by the Mawhood Family and paraded by Milly Nevill, Abbey Wilkens and Lily McKiernan taking second, third and fourth places. In the Middleweight classes, our lovely Limousin cross Square Meater Steer, who was again bred by the Kirk Family, won convincingly and was paraded by Marcus Wythes.
In second place, we had S16 paraded by Olivia Watts and bred by the Kirk Family, third was S10, a steer prepared by Isabella Irvine and bred by Summit Livestock, fourth was a steer bred by Summit Livestock and paraded by Angus Ryan, and fifth place went to S2 another steer bred by Summit Livestock and paraded by Taylor Kleinschafer.
The Heavyweight class was an extremely competitive class and after much deliberation the judge selected our S13 steer, prepared by Patrick McKiernan and Fraser Wythes and bred by the Kirk Family. He is a lovely well-muscled, well-finished steer. In second place William McKellar’s S8 again was bred by Summit Livestock, in third place was Philippa Webb and Marcus Stanley’s steer bred by the Kirk Family followed by Laura Moorheads steer Charolais steer bred by Viotlet Hills Charolais and finally fifth was Ethan Abel’s steer Harry.
In the Champion class, all three animals were exhibited by our team and in the end the heavyweight steer, paraded by Patrick McKiernan took out Supreme Champion with our Middleweight winner, the Grey steer paraded by Marcus Wythes taking out Reserve Champion. Both these steers were bred by our long-time supporters, the Kirk Family.
Paraders saw around 50 competitors with our students performing extremely well. We had some exceptional results with many students taking out first, second or third in their heats so qualifying for the finals. Angus Ryan won his heat and then went on to win the 15-17 year old class. Abbey Wilkens won her heat and, in the finals, went on to win the Reserve Champion Parader. Congratulations Abbey and congratulations to all as every student paraded with amazing professionalism.
A lovely surprise was also being awarded the Supreme Livestock Exhibit of the Show (out of all livestock – sheep, goats, horses, cattle) with one of our Limousin Steers.
A huge thank you must go to all of the students for their amazing teamwork and support of one another. They work very hard and their hard work has paid off and I am extremely proud of each and every one of them.
We must thank our breeders as without the wonderful cattle they supply us these results would not happen. The Kirk Family, Summit Livestock, Violet Hills Charolais and the Mawhood Family are long time supporters of our program and we are very appreciative.
We must also thank Bruce Inwood for all of the behind-the-scenes work he does – he truly makes a difference!
We are two weeks away from the Sydney Royal Show, so we will continue our preparations.
Mrs Libby Dawes, Director of Agricultural Studies and Equestrian
