Dubbo a winning trip for Deni High in Wether Challenge

By Contributed

Sep 4, 2022

From left: Nic Stubbings, Tom Charlton, Marisa Hovenden, Will Mckern, Miller Fitzpatrick, Charlie Hillier, Ellie Caruso, Dean Macdonald and James Selleck with the first place sashes.

Deniliquin High School last week returned from Dubbo with great results in the popular NSW Schools Merino Wether Challenge.

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Deni High was among 62 school attending, with 700 teachers and students taking part overall.

All entries were judged on restocker value, wool value and carcass value, with the scores of each adding up to a combined value.

Teacher Jamie Loy said Deni High placed first for its region in the restocker value, carcass value and combined value.

The school also equal second overall for restocker value and third overall for combined value.

Year 11 agriculture students had been preparing for the challenge for six months.

Students were responsible for the health and wellbeing of the wethers and adjusting their diet and monitoring their weight gain.

Students were also taught to lead the whethers, with the overall aim to produce a commercially productive animal of show quality.

From left: Charlie Hillier, Miller Fitzpatrick, Dean Macdonald, Will Mckern and James Selleck inspecting the automatic sheep tipper for shearing.

Wethers being judged for restocker value.

As well as participating in the judging at Dubbo, students participated in workshops teaching them about stock handling, pregnancy scanning, agriculture careers, wool quality, and shearing.

“The students were fantastic representatives of Deniliquin High School and it was great to see them engaging with industry leaders and networking with students from other schools,” Mr Loy said.

“We would like to thank Elders Deniliquin and Rivalea stock feeds for their ongoing support and feed donations.”