Best Maintained at Wingham

By Lisa Bright

LAST week 19 students from St Joseph’s High School Aberdeen joined another 400 students from 10 schools to show 140 steers at the Wingham Beef Week and came home with the ribbon for Best Maintained Team and success across several classes.

See photos below.

Results

Paraders classes

With the large number of students there were many heats, for example there were nine heats in the 15 year old group.

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

There were four weight classes with cattle in three of the four classes.

The St Joseph’s cattle placed first and second in class two, first in class three and second in class four.

This meant St Joseph’s had two of the four entrants in the championship class and two of the four entrants in the reserve championship class; they missed out on Champion Ribbon but were awarded Reserve Champion led steer.

There was another round of pleasing results in the hook class (carcase) with a school bred steer winning Champion School Carcase and Reserve Champion Carcase overall.

A highlight was the school then winning best maintained team from approximately 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 students 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.