Agriculture
Success at the Greater Sydney Cattle Competition
Our cattle team, Zara Buckley, Sophie Constantine, Rylee Schaefer, Will Giles, Isabella Robbins, Jacob Mulcahy, Alicia Balmer, Nadia Gauci, Ruby Keys, Aiden Mulcahy, Caitlin Jones, Sybella Williams under the guidance of Ms. Last, successfully reared and monitored the growth of a Murray Grey Steer for 100 days as part of the Greater Sydney Cattle Competition, which involved 13 schools. The students carefully planned his feeding ration, worked on breaking him in, and honed their parading skills in preparation for competition day.
On Live Day, held in mid-August, the steer was judged and placed 3rd. The student team was judged on both their parading and judging abilities as well as the presentation they prepared, which outlined their feeding regime. Alicia was awarded 3rd place for Jnr Novice Parader, Sophie, 1st Place for Snr Novice Parader, Rylee, 3rd Place Snr Experienced Parader, Nadia 2nd, non-speaking Junior Judge, Will 3rd Snr Speaking Judge, the Junior Beef Appraisal Team, comprising Sybella, Aiden, Ruby and Nadia, was awarded 1st place. This competition, a "hoof and hook" event, also provided the students with valuable feedback on the quality of the resulting carcass.
The competition culminated last week with the Presentation Evening, where Sophie and Rylee represented the school proudly when they delivered their speech summing up the lessons learned from “Live Day”. Congratulations to the entire team for their dedication and success!
Agriculture Students Shine at Penrith Show
Students from our agriculture program showcased their skills at the recent Penrith Show, excelling in several events. They constructed an impressive display outlining the processes involved in producing corn as well as the vast array of end products including paper and bioplastic. This year 15 schools, both public and private, competed. Students were interviewed by two teams of judges about the information contained in the display. Their efforts earned them 1st Place for the Display, 1st Place for Students’ Choice for the Display and 1st Place for the combined livestock competitions.
Mahdi and Kristian were our student judges who appraised each of the other schools’ displays to help select the Students’ Choice Award. Mahdi spoke confidently to the audience about the things that they had learnt during the activity.
In cattle parading, Sophie, Isabella and Alicia placed first in their heats, with Sophie being awarded Champion Novice Parader overall, Ruby and Caitlin were also awarded ribbons in their heats. Jacob was awarded 4th Place in the Experienced Paraders Class. Aiden, Rylee and Milla received ribbons in the Novice Sheep Parader competition with Rylee being awarded Champion Novice Sheep Parader. Alicia was placed 3rd in Sheep Judging. Working as a team, Isabella and Ruby came 4th in Poultry Judging.
The heifer fitting team of Nadia, Caitlin and Aiden performed outstandingly, earning third place in the competition where they prepared an animal for show. And Isabella, Jacob, Alicia and Ruby came 3rd in the Young Farmers’ challenge.
Many of our students wore the “Corn Cob” outfit when handing out our bags of freshly popped corn using the Popcorn Machine kindly loaned to us by the P&C.
Thanks to Sophie Constantine, Rylee Schaefer, Jacob Mulcahy, Isabella Robins, Kristian Harris, Alicia Balmer, Milla Dempsey, Ruby Keys, Caitlin Jones, Aiden Mulcahy, Sybella Williams, Tobias Moncada, Mahdi El Kabout and Chloe Shipp who represented our school. Thanks also to their very supportive families. We are incredibly proud of their achievements!
Carrying on from our success with corn, all Year 7 classes are now growing popcorn – hopefully ready for popping by the end of next Term.
Spring Births
Aside from the Shows we have had lots of other excitement at the Ag Plot with the birth of twin kids and lots of lambs. One lamb, Blossom, was unfortunately abandoned by her mother and is being bottle fed.
We look forward to Term 4 where students will have the opportunity to attend the Camden Agricultural Youth Expo on 15th November where students will be able to further their skills in handling, judging and parading a range of livestock, and judging fruit and vegetables.
Ms Atkinson
Agriculture