How a school's agriculture program has bounced back after the pandemic

The school show team at Salesian College, Sunbury, has made a comeback after the Covid-19 pandemic.

That's according to teacher and show team program manager Amy Harwood.

"Over Covid it sort of fell away a little bit with the shows being cancelled and everything," she said.

"This is our second year back having a sheep team and third year back having a cattle team.

"It's definitely an expanding program."

Ms Harwood's school showing group is going from strength to strength with 11 in the sheep team, up from six in 2024, and 15 in the cattle team, up from 10.

Another 25 students were part of the show support team across both.

The sheep team was out in force at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo last weekend.

For many, it was their first show, and most were from non-farming backgrounds.

"In this team we've got two specifically from farming backgrounds and a couple of others who have more distant relatives," Ms Harwood said.

"About half the kids don't have any farming or agriculture background, apart from the school program."

She said the school's livestock included six Merinos, 30 Corriedale and a handful of crossbred sheep, 10 Simmental cattle and a Hereford stud on site with 50-60 head.

She said this gave every student the chance to get hands-on experience caring for the animals.

"For the students, they're building confidence within themselves physically as well as their ability to understand and communicate with other people, particularly through that junior judging system," she said.

She said the school's program gave her students new organisation, teamwork, leadership, co-operation and communication skills.

"They're a wonderful team and we're really lucky," she said.

Salesian College also had a huge agricultural and food production curriculum for year 7-12 students, covering everything from crop growth to chicken farming.

Each year, 500-600 students take these types of classes - a testament to the interest in agriculture at present, according to Ms Harwood.

She said much of this interest was coming from female students.

"We're seeing all of the incredible young women in the show arena [at Bendigo] and within the industry here," she said.

"There is space for them in the industry.

"It's showing the young women in the team that they are 100 per cent capable of it."