ST Joseph’s High School Aberdeen proudly boasts a number of young ambassadors who’ll provide a bright future for agriculture.
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And, they’ve got the results to prove it.
Nineteen St Joseph’s students attended the recent Wingham Beef Week, showing 11 school steers from local breeders.
The four-day event encompassed steer and heifer classes, carcase classes, beef appreciation and meat judging.
St Joseph’s head of agriculture Lisa Bright said the competition was a great education for youth in the beef cattle industry.
“Wingham Beef Week attracted 400 pupils in total, as well as 140 steers,” she explained.
“A highlight was St Joseph’s winning best maintained team from about 40 other schools.
“This indicates the great teamwork and pride that the students attending had for their school, themselves and their cattle.
“The Wingham program is very well run and the benefits gained by pupils for their knowledge and passion (for the beef industry) are second to none.
“There is consistent feedback every year from students about how much they enjoyed the week, all the while getting a great insight and education.”
Results –
Paraders classes:
“With a huge amount of kids there were many heats; for example nine heats in the 15-year-old group,” Ms Bright said.
“The most successful students, with a number going through to the championship class, included Olivia Estrada, Travis Lamey, Oliver Towell and Bree Gordon Risby.
“Kayla McIntyre and May Hodgkinson both placed runner-up in the meat judging competition.”
Steer classes:
“This was a very successful event with 140 cattle (in total) in the competition,” Ms Bright said.
“St Josephs’s contested three of the four classes.
“We placed first and second in class two, first in class three and second in class four.
“This meant that St Joseph’s then had two of the four entrants in the championship section, as well as two in the reserve championship division.
“Although we missed out on a champion ribbon, we were awarded reserve champion led steer.
“The hook class (carcase) then gave another round of pleasing results with a school bred steer winning champion school carcase and reserve champion carcase overall.”
