contributed
Cobar High School Stage 5 Agriculture students competed at the annual NSW School Merino Wether Challenge in Dubbo last week.
Cobar High was among 69 schools participating in this year’s Merino Wether Competition at the Rabobank National Ram Show and Sale.
All schools across the state are invited to put in an expression of interest to take part in the challenge and this was the second successive year Cobar High School has taken part.
Each year, the Dubbo National Ram Sale Association purchases a line of Merino wethers which are then distributed to participating schools to care for and prepare for processing for a period of six months.
The sheep are assessed and scored based on commercial values of their wool and meat.
Cobar High’s Ag teacher Kym Sutton said students learnt a lot from entering the competition last year and applied it to this year’s competition where they saw improved results.
“They had a great time at this year’s event.
“They were able to gain a lot of hands-on experience in wool classing and assessing different fleeces,” Ms Sutton said.
“They participated in a Young Farmers Challenge and spoke to a lot of different industry professionals – wool brokers, fashion designers, shipping and sales, on farm managers, stud owners, working dog trainers, Fletchers sheep buyers/quality control staff within the meat processing industry and logistics managers for both domestic and export markets.
“Our Wethers were a noticeable improvement from last year with all judges (wool and restockers), as well event organisers, complimenting the students on their preparation and efforts with the sheep which averaged a 1.75kg fleece and 66.7kg live weight after shearing.”
