FOR St Mary's College Gunnedah, the decision to up-skill when it comes to meat science, identification and judging has paid off.
Winning overall champion team of the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza's intercollegiate meat judging competition (ICMJ) hosted by JBS Scone, the students were all smiles as they proved 'hard work pays off'.
It was the second time that St Mary's had entered an ICMJ competition, the first being at Wingham Beef Week in May.
"They (the students) weren't happy with their performance, so we all came up with a plan to reverse that and do a bit more training," agriculture teacher Lachlan James, also of Wallawong Premium Beef, said.
"This the second time they're entered a competition, and the first time they have ever won."
With an honours degree in meat science, Mr James said that sector of the business is something he is so passionate about and
"I judged with Colorado State University back in the day... it is something I am passionate about," he said.
"The students were unsatisfied with their own knowledge and results, so we really worked on it.
"We did lunchtime sessions with photos, after school sessions. Streaters Family Butchery in Gunnedah were really supportive in letting the kids come in and do a session there. And we watched a lot of videos.
"For the carcase judging we did a thing called circle judging - which is a method I know how to do - to be able to make a decision. Judging is all about making decisions based on criteria before you start.
Mr James said they also had a pretend show where they went to Gunnedah showgrounds with Carrinya Christian School, and as part of that they did meat retail cut identification as a precursor.
"The students are all very interested in agriculture but the meat side of it is probably something relatively new to them in terms of COVID taking two years of experience off them," he said.
"All the opportunities usually presented to them as year 9-10 students are now being presented to them later in year 10-12. It was probably not something that crossed their minds prior to the start of this year.
"It is excellent to get access to plants at Wingham and JBS Scone, which gives these opportunities and exposure to students and really highlights different pathways for them."
St Mary's competed with two teams, eight students in total. Nine attended the event and presented 11 steers.
The overall champion team consisted of Kaiya Grace Hendrie, Marney Jones, Peter McCormack and Rylee Mitchell. The group of four also won champion retail cut and primal ID team and champion beef carcase and primal judging team.
Individually, Peter McCormack excelled coming away with second overall individual and second in retail cut and primal ID, while Marney Jones was third overall, fourth in the retail cut and primal ID and first in the beef carcase and primal judging.
While the students' dedication to training and development paid off, it wasn't without struggles with the St Mary's ag plot being completely submerged in floodwaters for weeks now.
"Floodwaters has meant that the school's animal had to come back to Wallawong as the ag plot went under five time in the last few week's (prior to Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza), to the point you can't see the fences," Mr James said.
"I came down early on Wednesday prior to Beef Bonanza just in case we couldn't get the cattle down with the forecast."
Reflecting on the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza event, Mr James said it is so good for the industry and for all the kids.
"You have to commend the committee - it runs so smoothly considering the number of participants and, this year, how atrocious the weather was," he said.
"The generous sponsors, fantastic committee - it is the best youth event in the world.
"It is really, really good. It goes above and beyond. People donate time; an hour here, or 10 hours there, and it gets multiplied by the number of people they pass their knowledge onto and it is a big influence.
Mr James said the schools' next focus is Wingham Beef Week.
"In the past we have done Sydney, but at the moment it doesn't fit in with a few things," he said. "We will use Wingham as more of a development type of thing for younger kids, then maybe Tamworth Show which is moving from September to March, which works pre-Wingham, and Manilla depending on when it falls, but all with focus on getting to Wingham."
Freya Weismantel, Kempsey High School, won individual champion meat judge and was a member of the reserve champion overall team from Kempsey High.
- Story on Freya's wins to follow.
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