Scottsdale High School and Exeter High School teaming up for beef education

Two Tasmanian farm schools are working in unison on a beef program that is proving mutually beneficial for their agriculture students as well as the bottom line.

Surplus Angus cattle bred at Scottsdale High School have been sold to Exeter High School to be grown out and on-sold at the end of the year.

The cattle, weaned at eight months, averaged 310kg but are expected to reach 550-600kg by December.

Scottsdale High ag teacher Kylie Rattray said in just their first few weeks at Exeter the cattle had put on more than a kilo per day.

Ms Rattray had been talking to Exeter ag teacher Greg Finigan at a Rivitalising School Farms meeting about plans to purchase more cattle when the offer was made.

“It’s a great collaboration – we have a buyer and they have the chance to value-add – the bonus being they’re pretty bombproof cattle that are used to being around kids and will suit being at the school,” Ms Rattray said.

Mr Finigan said five years of building a successful beef business at the school had enabled the investment of $16,500 for the pedigree Angus.

“We are not breeders, we have tried it and it didn’t work out well, so our program is about fattening sheep and cattle and teaching students all the elements of achieving that from the decision-making process through to the paddock to the plate,” he said.

“It’s a big undertaking but really it was a no-brainer – it’s worth the money to spend on good genetics and we have the added benefit of gaining Ms Rattray’s knowledge to help with our program when needed.

“We just sold some cheaper cattle that we’ve had for a year that we paid $5.20 per kilo  liveweight and sold for $8.30 dressed weight – if we can do even better than that we might be able to double our investment.”

The school has 15 grade 7-10 ag students who are learning by doing most of the cattle handling and data collection.

Year 11 and 12 students get more involved with the business management side, working out what to buy at what cost and projecting returns, as well as developing agricultural enterprises.

The seven full-time ag students spend four days a week with Mr Finigan and one day a week on a TAFE VET program to gain a certificate II in agriculture.

Having had a good season for silage late last year, cutting twice the amount of bales as the previous year, Exeter farm has been able to easily feed its new bovines.