Year 10 agricultural students Alexa Sharp, Sophie Deith, Tarlia Rudge, Maddison Ellis, Ineke Walsh, Annabelle Haughie, Lucas Daldy, Lennix Ponting and Tyler Zammit.
A group of aspiring young sheep handlers has flocked home with another win for its school in a statewide competition.
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The Victorian Schools Merino Wether Challenge in Clunes has been running annually for three years.
Greater Shepparton Secondary College took out the championship in its inaugural year.
Last year, the school backed it up.
And now, after this year’s competition on August 25, its Year 10 agricultural students have taken the third crown for their school.
Show team student Lennix Ponting said the event was challenging, but fun.
“It was another win for our school in a row. It was nice to be a part of that and celebrate with our team,” he said.
The event connects students and teachers from several Victorian schools who have been rearing half-a-dozen sheep each for the past six months.
At the challenge, the students prepare the sheep to present them before judges, who inspect the animals’ teeth, feet, faces, eye muscle depth, and their wool, before they get weighed and shorn.
After shearing, the wool gets weighed and measured for entry into next year’s Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show.
Year 10 students (back, from left) Sophie Deith, Maddison Ellis, Annabelle Haughie, Tarlia Rudge, Lennix Ponting, Lucas Daldy (obscured), Ineke Walsh, Tyler Zammit, and front, holding championship ribbon, Alexa Sharp.
Teacher Charlotte Drinnan said the competition was tough this year.
“The other schools have lifted their standard so much, which is great to see,” she said.
“All credit to Manangatang P-12 — a tiny school of only 60 students — who brought some very well-grown and presented sheep and finished as overall Reserve Champion.
“Aitken College (Greenvale) has also improved tremendously in the past year and I extend my congratulations to both of those schools, also to Assumption College (Kilmore) for winning the student presentation.”
Besides being crowned overall grand champions, one of the GSSC’s two teams brought home a first place in both the ‘highest carcass value’ and ‘best presented group’ categories, with a ‘highly commended’ for ‘student engagement presentation’ as well.
“The students were organised, worked incredibly well as a team on all aspects of the day and leading up to the competition,” Ms Drinnan said.
“To get to this level requires months of hard work and the students have put in some really hard yards.”
This year included a new ‘student engagement presentation’ component of the competition, where students were required to give a five-minute presentation to the judges and two other schools.
The chosen content was incorporated into GSSC’s class curriculum throughout each semester and the final team of students was selected from three classes across both semesters.
Year 10 agricultural students Lennix Ponting and Maddison Ellis.
“The only way for them to get together and prepare a presentation was to create ‘Sheep Club’ after school on Fridays,” Ms Drinnan said.
“The students worked really hard on their presentation; not just the content, but how to write slides with minimal content and then speak in more detail about the topic, using gestures, posture and eye contact effectively, use props (wool samples), humour, operate the technology and only have cue cards if required.
“Our students presented so well on the day, even if the torrential rain on the roof of the shed made it difficult to hear.”
The agricultural students now face a new challenge of looking after two dairy calves for a fortnight before preparing to enter eggs and vegetables in this year’s 150th Shepparton Show.
They will also participate in dairy heifer handling clinics and a youth parader competition, as well as helping with goats, an animal display, a dog high jump and various other events to celebrate the show’s milestone.
In the meantime, they’re seeking sponsorship for a new shed to store animal feed and supplies.
“If there are any businesses or philanthropists in the community who would be kind enough to assist us with this expense, we would love to chat,” Ms Drinnan said.
“We are also keen to talk with any farming members of the community who are familiar with breeding and managing stud sheep, as my next goal would be to have a college sheep stud so we can compete at the various agricultural shows and at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo.”
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