FINISHING on top at this year's Harvey Beef Gate 2 Plate School Challenge held at Willyung feedlot, Albany last week was the Western Australian College of Agriculture, Cunderdin.
Six schools participated in this year's challenge including the Western Australian College of Agricultures in Cunderdin, Narrogin, Denmark and Harvey, along with Great Southern Grammar at Mount Barker Community College.
There were eight school teams with Denmark and Narrogin having two teams each.
The event was again supported by the Harvey Beef team and the Coles Group.
The challenge took place on day two of the Gate 2 Plate field day and aims to help the students develop their beef industry knowledge and skills.
Part of the day was dedicated to giving the students advice and tips on how to apply for jobs once they finished school and looking to begin their working careers.
There were various topics covered by eight different speakers throughout the day.
Kicking off the day was Bruce Radys who spoke about early phosphate runoff, Dr Scott Strachan was next to speak on carbon credits before the students then had the opportunity to learn about stock handling from local stockman Steve Moir.
Adam Martin, Coles Group, spoke about understanding a carcase and different meat cuts and Natasha Thompson, Bendigo Bank gave a talk on finance.
The students were given some industry experience and insight from a local Manypeaks producer Keiran Howie, then the importance of mental health was spoken about by Tom Hayes, Men's Regional Health and towards the end of the day, Jarrod Carroll gave a demonstration on how to pull calves.
The students were also able to view the cattle that they had entered in the challenge and were given an update on their weight gain so far.
The carbon topic winner was Cooper Pearson, WACOA Harvey, from Jacana Vincent, WACOA Denmark (team one) and Henry Stephens, Great Southern Grammar.
The stock handling practical section winner was Josh Coole, WACOA Denmark (team one), from Jorja Waters, WACOA Denmark (team two) and Brendan Quick, Great Southern Grammar.
The all topics quiz winner was Oliver McLeary, WACOA Cunderdin, from Zoe Skinner, WACOA Denmark (team one) and Libby Miell, WACOA Denmark (team two).
The carcase topic winner was Toby Emmott, WACOA Harvey, from Aaron Cuthbertson, WACOA Cunderdin and in third place was Michael Cottle, WACOA Denmark (team two).
Taking out the first place ribbon in the early phosphate run-off topic was Cooper Pearson, WACOA Harvey, from Fraser Hagboom, WACOA, Cunderdin and James Densham, WACOA, Narrogin (team one).
The finance topic winner was William Lethlean, WACOA, Cunderdin, from Hamish Bowie, WACOA Denmark (team two) and Leo Fleming, Great Southern Grammar.
The overall champion team was the WACOA Cunderdin team of William Lethlean, Oliver McLeary, Chloe Taylor, Aaron Cuthbertson, Kirra Lelievre, Dylan Johnson, Fraser Hagboom and Riley Wandel on 21 points, two ahead of WACOA Denmark (team one) of Lachlan Johnson, Josh Coole, Rori Skinner, Jacana Vincent, Zoe Skinner, Libby Miell, Riley Pes and Tomas O'Farrell.
Harvey Beef Gate 2 Plate co-ordinator Sheena Smith said the entire committee was pleased with the level of participation shown by all the students throughout the day.
"We are very lucky as an industry to have the Agricultural Colleges producing the level of students that they are, who are going to enter into this industry," Ms Smith said.
"The interaction from all the young men and women with the speakers and industry figures on the day was outstanding.
"Their eagerness to learn was fantastic and we would like to congratulate all of the schools on their efforts."
