Show Report 2018

September is always a busy time for agriculture at Meningie Area School as we take the animals that we have been prep

aring for the past 6 months to the Royal Adelaide Show.

This year we entered 4 steers and 2 teams of 3 Merino Wethers. There were 22 students that accompanied these animals with 4 adults supporting them. The students were; Lochie McPherson, Kobie Hood, Gena Mansfield, Riley McNicol, Georgia Whitehead, Tammin Clark, Tiarnie Ling, Charli Medlow, Cameron Miller, Marc Nacario, Adam Sumner, Imogen Allen, Chelsea Swan, Jessica Turner, Jasmine Cunneen, Lauren Parsons- Avery, Coen Thomas, Chloe Retsas, Addison Swan, Grace Gubbin, Kali Hincks, and Addison Mammone. Along with myself and Sarah Lehmann, Mandy Cunneen relived some of her old school days and supported the team as a parent, while Beth Jurgs provided support for the students washing and preparing the steers for the ring.

The steers were a Black Limousin, Raven Neptune, donated by Jason and Penny Schulz, a Black Simmental , Lancaster Nelson, donated by the Cartledge family, a Red Angus, Drayton Park Napoleon, donated by the Burpee family from Tintinara and Moyle Park Neville a Red Poll donated by Richard Daley from Jamestown. We also prepared a Black Angus, Wellington Lodge Nitro, but he didn’t like to be led so he is going to the Loxton Show on the first weekend of the holidays instead. The sheep were provided to us by David and Gwenda Eckert of Mentara Park, Malinong.

The sheep, steers and all of the students made their way to the showgrounds on the Tuesday of the show. The sheep arrived early and were put in to their pens, then weighed and scanned. The steer area was prepared with all of the pizzazz that our school has become renowned for, and others have tried to emulate. The steers were then brought into their home for the next three days and settled down, fed and watered before we all had a meal near the showgrounds and then made our way to the West Beach Parks Resort where we all stayed for the next two nights.

Wednesday morning we made our way in to the showgrounds early as the wether judging started at 8.00am. The sheep team busily made the final touches to our wethers and got organised to parade them. The wethers were then judged for best presented pen and skin value. Once that was completed, they went back to their pens to wait for shearing.

Meanwhile the steers were fed, watered, and taken for a walk while their stall was cleaned and freshened up. They were then taken to be weighed and scanned. Once that was completed, they were washed and dried in readiness for their respective breed selection for the TFI trophy.

The wethers were shorn and then all team members gathered to take our steers on to the main arena for the Grand Parade.

After this the wethers were once again lined up, this time minus their wool, ready for the presentation of ribbons. Our wethers looked fantastic in the line of 150 sheep, but unfortunately did not receive any ribbons this year. We are still proud of how well we had prepared them and how great our team looked in the presentations. With that the wether section of the show was over.

After feeding and watering the steers once again, the students had free time to see the other aspects of the show and enjoy the rides and showbags, and to watch the fireworks.  At the end of a long day we made our way back to the resort for the night.

Another early morning on the Thursday, feeding and watering steers with another quick wash ready for judging.

Tammin led Neville in the ring first and while she did a great job, didn’t get a ribbon. Charli led Nelson and received a first in his class, Gena led Napoleon and got a second in his class while Chelsea led Neptune to a 5th place ribbon in our final class for the day.  We were really happy to get three ribbons from 4 steers, but a bonus to this was Gena being selected for the final of the Urrbrae Handler’s Award.  She made the final in 2017 and came 5th but this year she did even better winning 1st place.

The final announcement for the day was the Most Professional Show Team Award.  We came second again, which means that we have been in the Top 2 for 5 years in a row.  When you consider that over 30 schools are involved, I think that is a pretty huge effort and a testimony to how well Meningie students work together to achieve a goal.

MENINGIE 
AREA SCHOOL

1 North Tce MENINGIE 5264
Principal: Ms Fiona Haselgrove
Partnership: Coorong Mallee 

 

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