From woe to go: Emmaus College students' success in the Droughtmaster ring

The experience of showing cattle at the highest level in the state will not be lost on the students of Jimboomba's Emmaus College, according to their agriculture teacher, Will Goss.

About 19 students in the curriculum team, with support from school staff and friends, had a mixed day on Friday, under the eyes of the judge, Tania Sainsbury and going head to head with some of the biggest names in the breed.

"We're a school that is up and coming in our program," Mr Goss said.

"The kids do an amazing job, and the best they can do, that's the great part about it.

Mr Goss, a former South Australian from a wheat and sheep farming family in the Clare Valley, said the students were definitely urban kids, some from hobby farming blocks.

He said experience at a higher level was hard to come by, some get work on larger acreage properties towards Beaudesert or the saleyards nearby.

The students access the loan cattle from Andrew Percy, Cribrum Droughtmasters, Purga and Paul and Katie Newlove, Sony Pinch Droughtmasters, Maroon and care for them from April through to September.

"They are pretty proud to show them on behalf of the donors," he said.

Mr Goss said that after the excitement of attending the Ekka, the students hosted a show at Emmaus College, where fellow students, families, and friends got to see the cattle being paraded and judged by the students from the show team.

"It's like athletics day for the show team kids, if that makes sense," Mr Goss said.

"The whole school comes up and we crown our champion cattle handler on the day.

"Then we finish the year with the Beaudesert show."

He said in the college's whole agriculture program, there are about 250 to 300 kids across the board.

About two or three students choose agriculture as a career from the college.

"Which is great, I'd love to see more, I'm from the industry myself," he said.

"They gain so much: independence, confidence, public speaking, persistence, perseverance, and resilience, those skills that are paramount.

"The kids get the animals in April and they train and prep them, from woe to go, and now they're walking them around the Ekka.

"They don't get massive results, it's not about that for us, it's about being consistent and doing what they want to do."