Students from Rochedale State High School’s Agricultural Show Team are hoping to win ribbons, hone their judging skills and pick up some new insights into farming at this year’s Royal Queensland Show, the Ekka.
The show team has been active since 1993 and is a co-curricular extension of Rochedale State High’s signature agriculture program, where students can study agriculture as a subject.
The team won 33 awards at last year’s Ekka, including seven champion awards.
Deputy principal Rob Evans said the goal this year was unchanged: win the schools competition, especially the tidy pens competition.
“The tidy pens competition is 100% student work,” Mr Evans said.
He said student stayed onsite at the Ekka during show week and it was their responsibility to keep the animals’ pens clean.
“They have to get up in the morning at 5am to muck out the pens and keep them clean throughout the whole time. That’s what we’re striving to finally win, we haven’t quite got there, coming runner-up a few times,” he said.
Mr Evans said students entered a whole host of competitions, and this year would be entering their honey and eggs for the first time, alongside Southdown and Suffolk sheep, and Hyline, Golden Lace and Australorp chickens.
Senior students would also gain experience as sheep, horse and cow judges, he said.
The school’s head of science, Anna Albert, said the show team was primarily student-driven, with senior students leading the team, both in planning and teaching, with the Ekka the capstone end goal.
“I’ve been really impressed with the senior students – they come quite early, and they have a vision of what they’d like to do for activities,” Ms Albert said.
“This year, they want [their displays to be] more interactive for the people attending, so they’ve actually come up with a interactive activity for each day they’re at the Ekka, which has a very different focus.
“I’m very, very pleased at how they are thinking about the requirements that they need, and I think they’ve been very proactive.”
The Agricultural Show Team meet after school every week to practice animal handling and judging, rear, breed and prepare the school’s animals for competition, as well as learn public speaking and leadership skills.
Year 12 student Delta Farrell has enjoyed being one of the show team’s leaders this year.
“This year’s really bittersweet. I’ve been doing it for six years, and now my last show is coming up soon. It’s super sad, but I’m also really, really excited as it’s the year that I’m finally getting to lead it, and I get to do all this networking within the community,” she said
“Outside of school, [The Ekka] is the best experience for me to talk to breeders and people who’ve been in the industry for way longer than I have been, and it’s really fun to get to know all the people who I’m gonna be potentially working with in the future, all the people who’ve been doing this for years, and get to actually learn what they know from being on an industrial farm.”
Year 10 student Harnoor Kaur was last year’s runner-up state finalist for poultry judging and says she’s really excited for this year’s Ekka.
“ Personally, I’m really excited. Each year it’s different, especially as you’re growing up, getting more experience, learning more from professional judges and seniors. And I hope this year, both for sheep and poultry, we earn a lot of awards while also having fun with friends.”
Year 8 student Thomas White was 1st place Junior Judge and Handler at the Marburg Show, and says he is excited to learn more at this year’s Ekka.
”It’s my second year, and last year I learned more about the breeds, better ways to talk about the animals and better way to judge them,” he said.
“I had a better understanding about how to judge wool, as we don’t really do much about wool as we don’t have wool breeds, so I’m really excited for the EKKA and learning more.”
Mr Evans said the time and effort students put in the team outside their regular study and work commitments was significant.
“ I’m always incredibly impressed at the amount of time and effort that the students put in outside their regular commitments just to do the physical work on the farm, especially the seniors, who are also trying to organise all the activities and all of the things that are going to be put on exhibit to try and win the school’s competition at the Ekka, while also teaching all the younger students how to judge, how to handle, how to conduct themselves on a farm,” he said.
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