VIDEO NEWS: Beef Bonanza

More than 830 students and 440 cattle from throughout the state converged on Scone on the weekend for the biggest beef bonanza yet.

See full video below.

Now in its 13th year the annual even continues to grow, giving school children the opportunity to get hands on with cattle and hopefully encourage more young people into the beef industry.

It was the first time cattle judge Ben Davies had been to the beef bonanza and he said he was impressed by the scale of the event and the enthusiasm of the students.

“It’s been a pleasure to come up here to the Upper Hunter and judge this beef bonanza with the quality of stock on offer,” said Mr Davies.

“The schools and general exhibitors have done a fantastic job to deliver such a strong line up of cattle and I’ve had my work cut out for me today to get these cattle judged and it’s been a pleasure to be here and I think it’s a great thing for the industry to have so many youth involved and showing the depth of people who are going t come up into the industry going forward into the future,” he said.

St John’s College of Dubbo were the overall winners at this years event.

Gemma Lydford a student from the College took out champion led, topping last years achievement of junior handler and her steer was judged supreme steer.

“I really enjoy it, like communicating and like making new friends and learning things about the industry,” said Ms Lydford.

“It’s a great learning opportunity for the kids like there’s heaps of kids here that learn and there’s heaps of competitions for the kids, so it’s a good show, yeah,” said Gemma Lydford.

Thee bonanza wrapped up on Sunday night with 429 cattle undergoing their final round of judging at the abattoir.

Final carcass results will be available later this week.