WA College of Agriculture - Denmark wins its fifth Gate 2 Plate Schools Challenge with team of eight students

The Harvey Beef Gate 2 Plate Challenge Field Day and Schools Challenge were combined into one day this year, attracting 56 students who formed teams to contest for the prestigious trophy. The 10th anniversary field day, hosted by the Harvey Beef Gate 2 Plate Challenge committee, was held on March 27 at the Albany-based Willyung Farms feedlot — owned by Sandy and Narelle Lyon, who also run the annual Challenge feedlot competition. The five schools represented were WA College of Agriculture — Cunderdin (one team), WACA — Denmark (two teams), WACA — Harvey (two teams), Mt Barker College (one team) and for the first time the Esperance Farm Training Centre brought one team of students to the event. Taking pride in their previous four overall team wins by former students, the WA College of Agriculture — Denmark (team one), consisting of eight students, were awarded the challenge trophy on the special anniversary occasion. The students included Phoebe Mottram, 17, William Reid, 17, Samantha Wimpenny, 17, Ayla McMaster, 17, Bree Skinner, 17, Jade Erasmus, 17, Lily Moody, 17, and Cara Jones, 17. During the day, they heard from several industry professionals on various subjects including vaccinations, pasture management, animal welfare and cattle handling techniques, plus cattle condition scoring and an introduction to the national policy maker Cattle Australia (formerly Cattle Council). While Zoetis Albany-based agent Ben Fletcher discussed the various preventable cattle diseases, Challenge committee member Robert Smith and vice chairman Kieran Howie spoke to the students on cattle selection — “docility is number one”. Porongurup cattleman Steve Moir said cattle that handled well made “easier work in the yards”. Lawsons Angus general manager Bevan Ravenhill said cattle producers needed to grow more grass. “Producers need to defer paddocks at the break — keep cattle off grazing paddocks for up to six weeks when grass is in its three-leaf stage,” he said. Harvest Road’s integrated cattle supply chain enterprise was also revealed with its six backgrounding pastoral aggregations consisting of 2.7m hectares and its three intensive farming aggregates, including a 20,000 head feeding facility near Moora. Harvest Road Agribusiness manager Declan Keogh said they were on a journey toward a target of optimal land and animal management to generate sustainable productivity and profitability. “Our long-term vision is our people and our values — the key to achieving our goals,” he said. “Our goal is to establish a healthy regenerative grazing system by continuously improving on soil health, the water cycle, managed grazing and optimal animal health to maximise beef production per stock unit.” The students were given a hand-written test of the day’s lessons resulting in the win for WA College of Agriculture — Denmark, with the two teams from WA College of Agriculture — Harvey taking equal second place. HARVEY BEEF GATE 2 PLATE SCHOOLS CHALLENGE OVERALL WINNERS 2024: WA College of Agriculture — Denmark 2023: WA College of Agriculture — Denmark 2022: Cancelled due to COVID 19 2021: WA College of Agriculture — Cunderdin 2020: Cancelled due to COVID 19 2019: WA College of Agriculture — Denmark 2018: WA College of Agriculture — Narrogin 2017: WA College of Agriculture — Harvey 2016: WA College of Agriculture — Denmark 2015: WA College of Agriculture — Denmark