Our Future: Cows at School

Eddie and Edna beef up industry knowledge

Two poddy calves won their way into the hearts of students, teachers and parents alike when they turned up at Darwin’s Alawa Primary School in April.

‘Eddie’ and ‘Edna’ were on loan till the mid-year school break and hailed from Phil and Annette Howie’s Maneroo Station in the Douglas Daly district. They settled in comfortably to life in the school farmyard and appeared to be relishing their role as the focus of a pilot program between the NTCA and Alawa School.

The NTCA has applauded the excellent work done by Dale Webster from Michels Warren Munday to get the program up and running and lining up special industry players to give the students an insight into the Territory beef sector and its role in developing local productivity and culture.

Guided by farm teacher Bindi Isis, the students spent the term caring for the calves and learning about important aspects of the cattle industry, including history, life on the land, animal husbandry, nutrition, environmental issues and career opportunities.

Lots of industry players got on board to help with the program.

Government livestock researcher Barry Lemcke managed the care of calves, industry veteran Roger Steele talked about the history, Marie Muldoon spoke about growing up on a cattle station, and shipboard stockman Tim O’Donnell provided an engaging presentation about live export.

The program ended with students taking a field trip to Maneroo to deliver Eddie and Edna safely home.

(The NTCA extends a special thank you to Territory Rural
for supplying feed for the calves during their stay at Alawa Primary School.)