Industry steers students towards show competition

Agriculture

A group of ambitious students from the University of Adelaide's Roseworthy Campus have their sights set on first prize at this year's Royal Adelaide Show.

The students are entering their own steers into the led steer competition for the 2008 Show, putting their personal experience and their university studies into practice.

The group of 15 students - who are mostly studying Agriculture, as well as Animal Science and Veterinary Science - is actively involved with feeding, halter training and grooming animals into elite show steers.

The steers are judged as live animals in the show ring and judged shortly after as a carcass, and are ranked on a points system.

"This is a great opportunity for Roseworthy students to build relationships with producers in the beef industry as well as learning many valuable skills," said Jake Phillips, second-year Bachelor of Agriculture student and Coordinator of this year's group of steers.

"This year we have had five animals donated to us for competition from different regions of South Australia, and Compass Farm Feeds is donating the feed ration," he said.

"The level of support from industry has been fantastic, and this would not have been possible without the sponsorship of animals and feed. It shows that rural businesses are encouraging the rural youth - they are not only interested in supporting what we do, they also stand to gain from our hands-on knowledge once we graduate."

The led steer activity at Roseworthy Campus is a fully student-organised program, "making it a very rewarding experience for all involved", Jake said.

"This gives the students opportunities to liaise with industry, learn animal husbandry, practise the theory from our course and develop our skills as maturing agriculturalists," he said.

"Roseworthy Campus is a very exciting place to live and study. As students, we know that we are at the cutting edge in Australia of experiments and industry trials. Our work on the led steers is a great supplement to that study. It is a credit to the students that they are willing to put in out-of-hours work and are determined to have a good result at this year's Royal Show."

Led steers from Roseworthy will be entered into the Gawler and Adelaide shows this year.

Story by David Ellis