St Catherine’s achieve success at Beef Bonanza

Last weekend, 880 students and over 400 head of cattle travelled to Scone to participate in the annual Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza.

The St Catherine’s Cattle Show Team consists of students from Year 2 to 10 – all of which have spent time breaking in and preparing the cattle for the Beef Bonanza.

The Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza is one of the largest cattle shows in Australia. The show team took eight led steers, two unled steers and one stud heifer to the event.

Local Singleton beef producers supply St Catherine’s with top quality animals for show exhibits and learning experiences in Agriculture. The Beef Bonanza cattle were brought onto the school farm in June, and fed and handled from that date. Since then, students have prepared the cattle by doing practice runs after school on Tuesday and Thursday each week.

At the Beef Bonanza, students were involved in a range of workshops and competitions, achieving great success and bringing home many ribbons.

The Cattle Show Team achieved the following results:

Led Steers:

1st: Ponga, a Speckle Park X

1st: Baileys, also a Speckle Park x, went onto to win Champion Heavy Middleweight steer

1st: Midnight, an Angus heifer, won reserve champion light middleweight

1st: Cliff, Speckle Park/Angus steer

1st: Frosty (Murray Grey) in light heavyweight unled class

3rd: Milo, a limo x steer

5th: Gunna, Charolais x

5th: Orla Rose, Murray grey stud heifer

Highly commended: Lil Rippa (Speckle Park X) and Hammer (Murray Grey)

The show team also achieved great results in the Paraders class, where the handler of the animal is judged for presentation and skills in “showing off” their steer or heifer. Many young students in the team also had the opportunity to exhibit their animal for the first time on their own.

These results are a testament to the hard work and dedication of a fantastic group of young people. The event also allowed senior students to mentor primary students and help teach them the skills they need to prepare cattle for competition.

The Cattle Show Team members are:

  • Joshua Hartup, Tom Fuller and Max Sternbeck – Year 2
  • Lara Gradwell – Year 3
  • Jacob Merrick, Jacob Green and Tamzin Joisce – Year 4
  • Jake Cook and Amelia Sternbeck – Year 6
  • Josephine Green, Ryan Bolam and Georgia Urquhart – Year 7
  • Emma-Leigh Green – Year 8
  • Clancy Papworth, Matilda-Jane Sternbeck – Year 9
  • Lauren McGee – Year 10

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