Students steer future

Elizabeth Macarthur High School at Narellan took out the champion parader awards, winning both the junior and senior sections, while best presented steer went to Colo High School.

Elizabeth Macarthur Year 9 student Clare Howe won junior champion parader while Year 11 student Brad Psaroudis took out the senior title.

Elizabeth Macarthur agriculture teacher Nicolet Westerhof said it was a team effort by kids, teachers and parents.

“Brad’s been doing this since Year 7 and it is Clare’s first year,” she said.

“The teaching program consists of the seniors teaching the juniors and past members come in and help train the team along with myself.”

The steers were supplied from the commercial herd at the University of Western Sydney’s School of Science and Health and involved 200 students from 16 schools across Sydney.

Each school prepares a steer for 100 days before it is judged for its meat quality with each team given 700 kilograms of cattle pellets to ensure feeding is consistent.

Live-day co-ordinator and Richmond High School agricultural teacher David Randall said there was a strong interest in the competition from the students.

“We are fortunate to have such great judges – they are so good at explaining to the kids what they need to improve on,” he said.

“The day is made possible because of all the teachers and students’ hard work, and a lot of after hours work goes into the day.”

Judge Bede McAlpin, Shorthorn Youth, was a student at Hurlstone agriculture school, Pheasants Nest, and participated in the program.

“It's a great program for youth in agriculture, great for young kids to work on their public speaking and skills showing cattle and displaying their knowledge,” he said.

“The quality of the kids’ showing was very high, and it was great to see their willingness to learn and take on the constructive criticism.”

The standard gets better each year for both steers and paraders, said judge Stuart Glover, Sydney University, who has been judging the competition for the past five years.