After spending six months preparing one of the largest teams they've ever planned to take, the Red Bend Catholic College's cattle team's Sydney Royal Easter Show hopes where dashed when it was cancelled for this year.
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The cattle team were set to enter 14 steers to Sydney Royal, which were comprised of 11 Limousins, two Angus and a Square Meater Cross.
Cattle team coordinator Susan Earl says the cattle team is extremely disappointed that they will not be competing in Sydney in April and realise things do not look too promising for getting into the Show ring anywhere and any time soon.
However, it's not all bad news for the cattle team with Colin Say and Co from Glen Innes deciding to run the carcase component of the competition.
The carcase competition is independent to Sydney and will not include a live judging, though steers will be judged on the Sydney specifications with the same point system, because they have been fed to meet these specs.
Mrs Earl said this competition will give them a chance to get some feedback..
The cattle team will only be entering eight steers in the carcase competition which is set to be judged on Tuesday, April 7.
Mrs Earl said they decided to hold onto four of the steers that they were going to enter in the Sydney Royal and intend to enter them in Scone Beef Bonanza in October.
Mrs Earl said the measures to contain the developing pandemic also may lead to this carcase competition being cancelled, but they have to find the positives.
Along with entering steers in the carcase competition, Red Bend's Cattle team will be entering in The Land's 2020 Beef Battle.
This is an online showing experience, broadcasting live judging of the state's best beef cattle over five nights.
Entries open from March 27 until April 3 with contributed photos and videos of each individual animal collated for a team of judges to cast their eyes over.
The photos and footage will be collated and divided into respective classes for both Bos Indicus and Bos Taurus rings with a team of judges then casting their eyes over the animals.
The live judging will run from April 27 to May 1 culminating in a supreme interbreed award.
In a statement on the Sydney Royal Easter Show's website, the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW stated it was distressing and disappointing to cancel the Show for 2020.
"There are many people who will be very upset by this decision, and this is the first time the Sydney Royal Easter Show has been cancelled because of a public health emergency since the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1919."
