Students have worked with steers, goats and sheep

The students have volunteered their lunch breaks since March in preparation for and care of the animals that will be entered into the September show.

Principal Alicia Keatley said that twenty seven students will attend the Adelaide Show and will assist in the three animal competition categories.

"The children will walk them out and around to be judged and then brought back and we have a couple of teams doing that," she said.

Twelve students will go earlier for the steer competition and fifteen are involved with the sheep and goat event towards the conclusion of the Adelaide Show.

"The number of students that go each year varies," she said.

"The sheep are presented in pens of three, they are weighed prior to the competition, then judged on growth, wool and the carcass.

"We also have some goats we take down, we have more than we generally need (six). We take the cattle, some will go to the Adelaide Show and others to the Mount Gambier show later in the year."

The Year 8 to 12 students volunteered three lunchtime breaks a week to attend to the animals and prepare their handling skills for the Royal Adelaide Show.

Agriculture teachers Kate McCarthy and Helen Altus said they were eager to take the students to the show and see them use their skills in the competitions.

"We are taking five steers, six sheep and eight goats," she said.

"The steers go to be judged in a 'hoof' category, so their weight, then they get hung up, and then returned to Naracoorte to be judged on their meat quality.

"The sheep get judged on their wool, the best meat and the best combined of wool and meat, and the goats are just on 'hoof', but we sell them on up at Adelaide."

Bordertown High School sent off a patch from their sheep population (10 sheep) to determine which six were best to enter into the show.

Ms Altus said she was happy to see shy or reserved students thrive in the hand-on agriculture experience.

"We have 'townie' students who volunteered this year, and many of them haven't worked with animals like these before," she said.

The Royal Adelaide Show will take place at the Adelaide Showgrounds from September 3 to September 11.

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