Birdwood High School won seven ribbons recently in the Schools Led Steer competition at the Royal Adelaide Show.

Two ribbons were won in the show ring: On the Hoof; the Limousin steer winning a fourth place ribbon and the Murray Grey winning a fifth place. But the Limousin scooped the pool to win 5 ribbons in the carcase competition including the T&R Pastoral Prize for Champion Domestic Carcase; Highest Scoring Domestic Carcase in both schools and open breed and the T&R Pastoral Trophy for the Grand Champion Carcase of the show.

The Limousin was bred by local Limousin breeder, Sandra Keatley, of Pebbly Range Limousin’s, who was very pleased with the win and will share the prize money with the school. One student, Melissa Hausler leading the Murray Grey bred by Kenton Murray Grey, was also selected to participate in the Handlers competition, an excellent achievement.

Mandy Newton, the agriculture teacher at the school said, “The students deserve to be highly commended in their outstanding devotion to the steer program at the school. A very motivated group fed and trained the steers every day, and mucking out the stalls with no complaint.

I feel very privileged to not only have such a group of students in the school, but to be offered 4 high quality animals to prepare for the show.” The school would also like to thank the Royal Adelaide Agricultural and Horticultural Show Society, T&R Pastoral and Woolworths who sponsored the event this year.

The school also recently participated in the Gawler Show as a lead up to the Royal, where the Limousin was placed second in the line up of steers, while two handlers won ribbons in their events. Kelly Phillips was placed FIRST in her event of Schools Handlers, while Tara Hall was placed SECOND in the Junior (13-18 years) Handlers, both of whom led the Angas bred by Noranda.

The fourth steer entered in the competitions was a Santa Gertrudis bred by Seymour Vale.

The Led Steer Team from the Birdwood High School with the Ribbons won at the Royal Adelaide and Gawler shows.

Handler, Chris Johns, with the Limousin Steer.