Early morning training sessions at the abattoir have paid off for Charles Sturt University student meat judges.
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The CSU team was runner-up in the Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging (ICMJ) competition at Wagga last month.
CSU fielded a 27-member team of students from the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences and School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences in the meat judging competition.
The five-day event was organised by the not-for-profit Australian ICMJ Association to highlight careers in the meat industry and provide hands-on training in carcass evaluation and meat science.
CSU Professor of animal production Peter Wynn said the students learned of new ways of cutting and selling Australian products to ensure that our export markets were expanding across the globe with a particular emphasis on selling products to Asia.
Professor Wynn said more than 160 students from five countries took part and CSU was the highest-placed Australian team.
The Border and North East played a major role in the success of the team with veterinary science students Vanessa Campbell, from Rutherglen, and Ebony Mull, from Gundowring, being part of the coaching team, while third-year animal science student Rowena Davis competed as a member of the CSU team.
Ms Campbell previously competed as a member of the Australian national team, which competed in the US last year and also helped coach the CSU team in the competition in 2013.
Ms Davis said the competition was an amazing experience.
“It is the first year I have competed,” she said.
“We got to network with the leaders in the industry; the competition was really a bonus.”
Four CSU students were selected in the 10-member national training squad.
Those four will now participate in a meat industry training workshop in Brisbane next month, where the national team to tour the US in 2015 will be selected.