Mustering for Beef Bonanza

MORE than 600 cattle and 400 school students are preparing for the annual Beef Bonanza to be held in Scone at the end of this month.

Today, St Joseph’s High School hosted 50 primary school students to teach them about managing their school steers and preparing them for the competition.

Dustin Turner from Sandy Hollow Public School likes the opportunity that Beef Bonanza is giving him with Buster.

“You get to connect with an animal, you probably wouldn’t get to connect with an animal at home, I went alright last year, I got a ribbon,” he said.

“I have been washing Buster a lot and completing challenges here at St Josephs since last term,” said Dustin Turner.

Caylie Edwards (St Josephs Denman), Mac Crowe (Blandford Public), Monique Davies (St Josephs Denman), Emily Taylor (Belltrees Public), Kalista Cone (St Marys Scone), Dustin Turner (Sandy Hollow Public, Riley Perez (Belltrees Public) and Lisa Bright.

St Joseph’s agricultural teacher Lisa Bright and her year 11 students have been looking after the cattle for Beef Bonanza at the school, today’s activities will help those schools with limited animals to gather wider experience with exposure to many animals.

“We have three school steers here, St Mary’s, Sandy Hollow’s and Aberdeen Public’s, we prepare and feed their steers for them and they come up and do the work on them,” Lisa Bright said.

“They get to handle a lot of animals, the point of today is that it is hands on to get kids to come and get a bit of experience, there are 20 St Joseph’s students here and they have only two steers so they don’t get that opportunity.

“We try to educate them on what to expect when Beef Bonanza comes,” Ms Bright said.

“It’s hands on education and it is only for primary school students, the year 11 primary industries kids are running it and they do it as a communication task, they run the workshops and have done all the organisation,” she said.

“They have 400 animals that are entered, it’s bigger than Sydney, there would have to be 600 kids competing over the weekend,” Lisa said.

“It is a great economic thing, everyone camps and the amount of money that it brings in with all the associated families as well,” said Lisa Bright.

Year 11 student Matt Duggan lives in town and relishes the opportunity to be involved in agriculture and particularly the cattle industry.

“I did ag in year 8 and ever since then I fell in love with agriculture, i live in town but a lot of families live on farms,” Matt said.

“When I leave school I want to go into the beef industry, this is my third year doing Beef Bonanza,” he said.

“I love working with the kids, they are funny and are full of energy,” said Matt Duggan.

Charlie Collins (St Josephs Denman) and Henry Dahmes (St Marys Scone) simulating a time limited preparation of the animal for showing.

Another year 11 Student Byron Worroll took on the challenge for different reasons.

“I thought I would take on a new experience, I have never done anything with cattle, it’s a great experience to have,” Byron said.

“I like teaching the kids something new, they can take it away and teach other people when they are older,” said Byron Worroll.

Beef Bonanza will run for three days from Friday, October 27 until Sunday, October 29 at White Park in Scone.