The arrival of spring brings with it calf club season, and students around Hauraki have been preparing for the big day.
Individual school calf clubs have been taking place over the past few weeks, with several schools, including Netherton and Kaihere, holding theirs at the end of term three.
At Ngatea Primary School, the field was filled with animals and onlookers for the school’s calf club on October 15.
Around 100 students were involved this year – a third of the school.
Calf club committee member Michael Webster said the Ngatea calf club was the main event on the school’s calendar.
“It’s one of the biggest calf clubs in the Waikato. There’s over 20 judges and stewards that are giving up their time, plus the sponsors that get in behind it as well,” he said.
“And the best thing is it’s not just farmers. [The school is] quite a mix of town and country.”
Principal Neil Fraser agreed, saying the event was the culmination of lots of hard work and organisation from parents and the calf club committee.
“We’ve got some farmers who allow children to come and do a calf club on their farm, so we’ve got a lot of town children who manage to have calves.
“And [the committee] came down yesterday in the absolute pouring rain to set things up. It’s a huge hands-on event for them,” he said.
Meanwhile, interschool Group Day events were also on the schedule for Waihī and Ohinemuri schools – but not in the Plains. This is the first year the Plains Group Day has not been held.
Neil said he didn’t know why the combined schools event was not going ahead, but suspected it had been on a slow decline for a while.
“Usually if a school can’t do it, it just shifts to the next person, so I’m not too sure what happened there,” he said.
“But if you go to Group Day, you’ll find it’s mostly [Ngatea] kids. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens next year.”
Calf club organisers declined to comment.
Attendance was high at the other interschool events, with the Ohinemuri Group Day taking place at Hikutaia School on October 10, and Waihī East School hosting the Waihī Group Day on October 16.
