(Back) Jamie Hall, Henry McAuliffe, Robert Opray, Lucy Kinnane, Maddie Beare, (front) Jasmin Fuller, Elizah Wilhelms, Claudia Hahnel, Jasmin Reddy and Ashlee Meyer raised championship-winning sheep.
A group of student sheep farmers took the perpetual championship trophy they won last year on what became a round trip last week, after nabbing the top prize again in this year’s competition.
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Ten Greater Shepparton Secondary College agricultural and horticultural students, their teacher, Charlotte Drinnan, and other teachers from the school, travelled to Clunes to camp in a shed the night before the 2025 Victorian Merino Wether Challenge on August 27.
Year 10 students Jasmin Fuller and Ashlee Meyer inspect the fleece on their sheep.
But not before a trip to Bunnings for a tarp, pool noodles and “some other bits and pieces,” Ms Drinnan said.
“It was pouring with rain all the way; it was a real challenge keeping the sheep dry.”
It wasn’t much better come judgement day, according to Year 10 student Claudia Hahnel, who participated in the program.
“It was bucketing down first thing in the morning ... then it started bucketing down again at the end,” Claudia said.
You can’t pick the weather, but the school’s wethers were the chosen ones, placing in three categories — second in carcass value, second in fleece value and second in best presented — and taking out the overall grand championship.
Year 10 Greater Shepparton Secondary College student Claudia Hahnel said the competition was exciting.
Claudia said she had no nerves in the lead-up; rather, she and her classmates found the experience “very interesting”.
“It didn’t seem that intense; it was pretty chill. It was exciting, though,” she said.
“There was obviously a little bit of pressure because we won last year, so we wanted to obviously take home the trophy again.”
The students prepared the sheep to present them before the six judges, by brushing out and snipping dirt from their coats, washing their faces and lining them up, straightening all their feet.
The judges inspected their teeth, feet, faces, eye muscle depth, and their wool, before the sheep were weighed and shorn.
All six of GSSC’s sheep had put on a further kilogram since the week before.
“The big fella (Shank) was 89kg,” Ms Drinnan said.
During shearing, the students lifted the sheep and picked up their fleece, so that it could be weighed and measured for entry into next year’s Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show.
The championship trophies and prize ribbons.
The students joined four workshops on the day, learning about apparel made from wool, auctioneering and career paths.
“Its a really great program. The students had to do a lot of talking to the adults; there was a lot of engagement that way,” Ms Drinnan said.
GSSC has 100 Year 10 students enrolled in its agricultural and horticultural classes, making up four classes.
They will now focus on caring for two calves in the final three weeks of the school term, as part of the Cows Create Careers program, which has been running for 21 years.
The two little heifers, from a Tatura farm, will support the students in their learning about the dairy industry, with the tasks they complete during the program being submitted for assessment to the organisation that runs it.
