Eighteen students and 18 cattle from the school’s agriculture department are at the Sydney Royal.

The school’s cattle team did well last year at Sydney Royal, finishing with a grand champion school carcase along with a swag of other medals.

Claudia, who is in year 11, has been involved with the team since she was in year eight.

“I grew up on a farm as well and we have our own show cattle, but I wanted a bit extra and something else to do at school,” she said.

“I just really enjoy showing cattle.”

The Scots School agriculture, cattle team and equestrian co-ordinator Libby Dawes said they had entered a number of categories this year, including purebred steer and carcase, trade steer and carcase and the junior paraders competitions.

“We exhibit animals from local studs and we are now starting to breed our own with two steers this year in our team being home-bred steers,” she said.

“Our aim is to breed our own quality steers from our own stud cattle and to exhibit half our team each year from these animals.”

Cattle breeds being exhibited by the school this year include Limousin, Hereford and Angus.

“Our steers exhibited at the show are used to teach students how to assess stock in terms of structure, muscle and fat assessment,” Ms Dawes said.

“We have the steers scanned for fat, which backs up the students’ assessments.”

Ms Dawes said the cattle team’s mentor system provides students with a range of skills and leadership roles.

“Students are given mentor positions which means they are in charge of a particular animal and teach a junior student how to handle and break in the animals,” she said.

“As they [students] progress through the years they have the opportunities to become team leaders, team captains and finally agricultural prefect.”