Australian schools gearing up for livestock showdown at Beef 2024

School students from as far away as Tamworth, NSW, will be hitting the road this week, with a cohort of 15 students from Calrossy Anglican School making the 1,000- kilometre trek to Rockhampton.

Calrossy Anglican School secondary teacher, Kathy de Jong, said the group of students from years eight to 11 would be competing in all junior competitions early in the week, as well as showing their stud Shorthorn heifers in the stud competition.

"The three Shorthorn heifers we are bringing have been bred by the school, with students actively involved in the breeding process, selecting the heifers for showing, breaking them in and preparing them," she said.

"We are also bringing three steers for the junior led steer competition and junior paraders."

Ms de Jong said the group of students was excited to attend an industry event of such calibre, and couldn't wait to be in Rockhampton.

"In addition to the students working hard to prepare themselves and the cattle for Beef2024, support from parents and friends has been integral to Calrossy's attendance," she said.

"In particular, we'd like to thank Tom Acton, who is allowing us to stay at the Paradise Lagoons campdraft grounds and use the facilities, which is one of the only reasons we can afford to attend this year."

They will be going head-to-head with local schools like St Brendan's College in Yeppoon and their team of 18 boys.

The school will be taking eight steers, mostly donated by local families, along with two stud Brahman females, both bred through AI by the school.

"Our show team is always made up of a mob of cattle that are bred here and cattle that are donated. We get really nice support from our families," head of agriculture Bill Oram said.

The boys had been preparing for the competitions in the past few months by attending shows at Baralaba, Marlborough and the Caves.

"We've had some success, place getters in all those shows in most age groups," Mr Oram said.

Last year the school attended 14 shows over two terms and would be looking to the same this year.

They have been training for the big stage with their sister school, St Ursula's College in Yeppoon, with about 12 girls joining them for cattle club on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The girls would be representing their own school, but Mr Oram said it was a combined effort between schools as they shared cattle for the led steer competitions.

St Brendan's has chosen not to camp on the grounds this year, instead being offered to camp at Trevor Dunn's property during the event.

Mr Oram said cattle were dipped and ready to head to Rockhampton, with the cattle club bumping in livestock on Friday and helping to get them settled on Saturday.

"I involve the kids in as much of that as I can, they usually fill out the NVD's to have some real life practice. Nearly all of that fits into the curriculum somewhere," Mr Oram said.

"We have a couple of grade 11 boys in our cattle club and at the moment they're doing loading and unloading livestock as part of their certificate 2 in rural operations, which includes all those legalities and NVD paperwork."

In addition to junior competitions, Beef organisers were expecting 3800 students from 66 schools to attend the School's Program featuring educational competitions, school tours, and career chat opportunities.

Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said it was great to see the next generation getting involved with the beef industry.

"Beef 2024 is an opportunity for students to try their hand at cattle producing," he said.

"It means they can see, up close, all the joys and challenges of working closely with livestock and might even get their minds working on ways to do things differently.

"I sincerely hope that some of these students will be inspired to look at a career in agriculture."