Dakabin takes the win against Aldridge in the Square Meaters: Beef 2024

Dakabin High School took out the grand champion male with Dakabin Utah, an 10-month bull sired by Dakabin Rodger out of Rosellinos Quicksilver Q28.

Weighing in at 324kg, it had a P8 and rib fat depths of 6 and 6 millimetres, and a 75 square centimetre eye muscle area.

The grand champion female was Dakabin Rozella, a 41-month-old cow, sired by Sunset Park Mr Mister out of Rosellinos Leane.

Judge Grame Hopf said the junior calf champion bull was outstanding.

"I have seen this breed develop in Australia over the past 40 to 50 years and the junior calf champion bull is as good a bull as I've seen within the breed," he said.

"He was certainly more structurally correct on the fertility traits (than the other males), the strength of spine and the overall muscle development and contact for his age."

Mr Hopf said the champion female was very feminine and had an outstanding calf at foot.

Dakabin State High School head of agriculture Fiona Lester said the school had a lot of support from the Square Meaters Society and a lot of the breeders had donated semen or lent them bulls.

"We've also got cows from them, we've been very very lucky and that's why we're in the position that we're in today," she said.

Ms Lester said the school chose the Square Meaters because they were a medium sized animal.

"We also have a Lowline stud so I use the Lowliners with my junior kids, my Years 7 and 8s, and then as the kids get older and they have more cattle sense, they move onto the Square Meaters," she said.

"The other thing is that they're a smaller breed so we only have 40 acres at the school...that suits us really well as they're very efficient so they don't require a lot of grass to make them look really good."

Ms Lester said more than 300 students were involved in agriculture at the school, and there were 25 students on the show team.

She said students in the show team learnt how to care for an animal, work as a team, have confidence in their own ability and talk to the public.

Mr Hopf said he wished more people in the community could have the experience of working with livestock as, for the school students, it was character building and society would be better off for it.

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