Wingham High School agriculture students will next week play host to more than 350 kids from 22 different schools for the 30th annual Wingham Beef Week.
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Twenty eight students will represent Wingham in competition for the week of May 15-20.
The Wingham team have worked hard to prepare their eight head of cattle for the event.
“It’s the culmination of our breeding program,” explained agriculture teacher Charlie Cassels.
The calves were all born around February 2016 and have been raised by the students.
Now they are 14-15 months old they are the right age for carcass competition.
All term the students have been handling, grooming and washing their cattle.
They have also been teaching them to parade with seven of the animals going into the led events.
The 2017 event is not only a first for the young steers.
It’s also the first year of going to Beef Week for six of the kids on the show team who were last year too young.
Going into year eight means the students get to join in the fun of Beef Week and they will be well looked after.
The show team consists of students in years 8-12 with the older ones acting as mentors to the newer recruits.
“It’s a cycle of mentoring,” explains Charlie.
“Sometimes kids respond even better to peers than they do the teachers.”
The students traditionally camp at the Wingham Showgrounds for the week long program of events.
“The learning opportunities of Beef Week are the prime reason the event is so unique,” said Charlie.
“That’s why we’re growing exponentially.”
With record entries of cattle this year Charlie also points out his show team has a record number of kids involved.
It seems everybody wants to be involved.
“We’ve almost got a waiting list,” said Charlie.
