Narooma High School students might be a stone’s throw from the beach, but in the Easter holidays they showed they can mix it with the best the bush has to offer.

At the Royal Easter Show, the school students, led by agriculture teacher Kylie Maher, took home a swathe of ribbons for their school cattle and parading events.

The success follows on from similar success at the Goulburn and Canberra shows, which led to five Narooma High students qualifying for events at the Royal Easter Show.

The students learn about cattle genetics and breed their own show stud. The school also partners with Kia Ora Limousins in Crookwell, about three hours’ drive away, to parade its cattle and supports school student Dylan Salway to show his family’s cattle from the Wingrove stud.

“We don’t have many farming families at the school, so the kids learn it all at school and the shows are a way of putting their learning into practice,” Ms Maher said.

Ms Maher said the school sent eight students to the Sydney event and showed 20 head of Limousin cattle from the school’s stud, and two properties, Kia Ora Limousins and Wingrove.

Ms Maher said the Royal Easter Show was a demanding event over nine days, that required a 4.30am start each day.

“The students have to show patience and a lot of teamwork to succeed, and it is amazing to see them come together.”

Ms Maher said the students were up against professional breeders and in the open competitions pitted against adults.

“If you get a ribbon at Sydney you are doing really well,” she said.

Year 12 student Hayley Stubbs was one of the big winners claiming the reserve grand champion title in the Heifer Fitting Challenge.

Dylan Salway also secured a second place with his Limousin bull Sir Robert, named after his grandfather Robert Salway, who died, along with Dylan’s uncle Patrick, in the Cobargo bushfires on December 31, 2019.

Dylan told Win News competing in the show was a way of honouring his late grandad.

“My grandparents started the stud in 2018 and sadly Pop isn’t here with us, so I just wanted to fulfil his dream,” Dylan said.

Ms Maher said helping Dylan’s family show their cattle had been a privilege for the school team and they would continue to support Dylan in the work.

The agriculture teacher said she was motivated to create the show team by her own experiences as a child showing cattle from her parents’ property.

Many of her agriculture students had also gone on to careers as agriculture teachers.

The school’s prizes included:

• Hayley Stubbs - Reserve champion heifer fitting challenge and 1st RAS youth show
• Stephie Ovington - 6th junior judging and 2nd heifer fitting challenge
• Sienna Anderson - 6th RAS youth show - junior parading and 2nd heifer fitting challenge
• Aloah Thompson - 3rd heifer fitting challenge, 2nd RAS youth show- junior parading and 3rd school parader
• Noah Smith - 3rd RAS youth show - parading
• Sam Matters - 4th heifer fitting challenge
• Sami Dawson - 3rd RAS youth show - junior judge