No-one could remember the last time Orange High School entered a team in the cattle section of the show and it was certainly not in agriculture teacher Daniel Waite’s memory. 

“There’s been more of a demand for agriculture recently so we decided to get a team together,” he said. 

The team of eight from year 7 to year 9 took home a second and third place in the steers under 400 kilogram category and were suitably impressed with their efforts. 

Year 9 student Elsa Bates is a show veteran but this year was all the more special because she could enter the competition with her friends. 

“It was really good because we got to work as a team,” she said.

GALLERY: FUN, FARMING AND FASHION AT THE 2014 ORANGE SHOW

The Orange High School cattle team members had their keen eyes on the James Sheahan cattle team veterans and she said the rookies learned a few tricks for next year. 

“Communication ... communicate with your team,” she said. 

On the cleaner side of the showground Sally Ryan basked in her success after she took out the top prize in cake decorating.

As president of the Orange Cake Decorators’ Guild she ran a competition on her Facebook page for her followers to pick the theme of this year’s entry. 

“It was to generate some more interest for the show really,” she said. 

She said the Middle Eastern inspired decoration took her about 20 hours to complete.

Orange Show Society treasurer Les Quick said the weather had kept attendance numbers down on previous years but there were still plenty of families around for the fireworks and the circus on Saturday night, despite the rain. 

“We’ve heard nothing but positive comments,” he said. 

By Sunday morning there had been about 4000 adults though the gates at the showground and Mr Quick said based on previous estimates the number was down by about 800 to 1000 people. 

He said he expected about 7000 people to have visited by the finish.