Murrumburrah High School Farm Club has earned high accolades from their visit to the Sydney Royal Show. Officials from the Shute Bell team are delighted at having raised another $15 000 for the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
The buyer of the Victor Chang steer, (named Cardiac), was Mr Russell Cooper, a long time supporter of the cause.
A team of six students, Kim Fairall, Jamie Davis, Kirsty Johnson, Tegan Woods, Joe Fitzgerald and Josh Carter, managed ten steers for the entire Sydney Royal Show. Students and steers arrived on Easter Saturday and remained until the following Thursday, camping in the cattle pavilion.
The School prepared a steer affectionately know as ‘Coop’, named after one of the local butchers, took out 1st place in the lightweight steer competition. ‘Coop’ was bred by Mr Harvey Jones from Beggan Hill Hereford stud and scanned nine on the rump and seven on the rib and weighed 373kg. At the Auction ‘Coop’ returned 420 cents per kilogram liveweight.
The Herdsman Competition is a competition involving all the schools exhibiting steers and is designed to reward those students who prepare, present and maintain both their cattle and area to the best of their ability. The students are asked questions to demonstrate their knowledge on the cattle. Remarkably Murrumburrah High School took out 2nd place to Yanco Agriculture High School in this competition, against 50 plus larger schools that have many more students and bigger budgets to spend. It goes to show that a small school with a big heart and community support can continue to achieve great things. Many thanks must go to the local producers who loaned produce to be put on display. A big thank-you goes to Mr D and Ms Sue McGilvray for constructing and painting the huge train that featured in the display.
With the culmination of the Autumn show season, the Farm Club wishes to pass on many thanks to their supporters, Bernie Minogue (transport), Neville and Aileen Alcorn (feed mixing), David Manwaring and Harvey Jones (stud masters), George Elliott (transport) and all of the parents and friends of Farm Club that work behind the scenes.
Show season starts up again in September with the first show being the Harden-Murrumburrah springtime show. Steers will begin to be broken-in this winter, as well as the calves that are arriving to the Farm Club’s Square Meater herd. Steers can be purchased at store weight, donated or prepared on a 50:50 basis by Farm Club. If anyone in the Harden district would like to see their own steer prepared, please contact Jan Young at Murrumburrah High School on 63862755 BH or 63865060 AH.