THE entire coterie of year 11 students at the WA College of Agriculture, Harvey, this year got to inspect diverse aspects of the sheep industry on day trips to Perth last week.
Some 60 students, split between bus trips on Tuesday and Thursday, visited the Rural Export & Trading (WA) sheep pre-export quarantine facility at Mundijong on their way to Perth.
They then visited the Australian Wool Testing Authority laboratories and neighbouring Western Wool Centre (WWC) at Bibra Lake to watch wool samples being tested to establish specification and then samples being displayed on the Elders show floor for buyers to inspect.
"We do it every year to give the year 11s a taste of the sheep industry," said teacher Nick Harger, who organised the visits and accompanied the students.
The Tuesday group saw sheep being loaded into trucks at the export facility to go to Fremantle to be loaded on a sheep carrier bound for the Middle East, but missed out on seeing the auction room at the WWC in action, Mr Harger said.
The Thursday group missed out on seeing the export facility operating because the sheep carrier had sailed, but they did watch an open cry wool auction at the WWC, he said.
