Mid North Coast schools dominate meat judging competition

Conducted at the JBS Australia Scone complex, the event had the 136 participants take part in beef carcase judging and retail cut and primal identification (ID). Students competed both individually as well as in teams representating their respective schools. 

Kempsey High School representative Alex Schofield was named the 2018 NSW Champion for meat judging which is derived from a combination of individual overall scores from the Wingham Beef Week and the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza. 

Mr Schofield was the overall champion individual with 551 points out of a possibly 600 during the Scone event, as well as the winner of the retail cut and primal ID section with 270 points from 300. 

He was also part of the overall champion team from Kempsey High School along with his fellow students Katie Barnett, Liam Whalen and Kirra Davison who scored a total of 1919 points from the possible 2400. 

The team from Kempsey was unstoppable throughout the competition taking home the team ribbons for beef judging with a score of 1109 out of 1200, and retail cut and primal ID with a score of 810 from 1200. 

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Hot on their heels were students from the rival Mid North Coast school Chatham High School at Taree. 

Dom Wyse from Chatham High was awarded runner up champion individual with 530 points, just 21 behind the champion. She was also the winner of the beef judging with 290 points from a possible 300, and runner up in the retail cut and primal ID with a total of 240. 

Chatham High’s team of four, including Ms Wyse, Logan Marsden, Lachlan Moore and Belicia Watson, was runner up to Kempsey High all day placing second overall with 1755 total points from the possible 2400 and second in the retail cut and primal ID section with 750 points. 

Tuggerah Lakes Secondary College had a student claim runner up and their team place second in the beef judging. 

Shante Palmer was the individual runner up who teamed up with Nathan Lazzoppina, Jess Withers and Emily Hitchell to claim their second plain as a team for beef carcase assessment.