Blacktown Girls High School  took to twitter to engage the twitterverse to vote for their #Archie17 entry with posts like this “Cotton Belle” in deep cottonsation with the principal, Mr Lumb. He congratulates her on becoming a finalist.@archibull @FAotC @ONUS_Agronomy

Gobsmacked. Truly gobsmacked by the response to The Archibull Prize People’s Pick

Why a People’s Pick when we have an official judge of the #colourfulcows aka #beautbovines aka world renowned #Archie17.

The People’s Pick isnt just about finding out if the community agrees with the official judge its key objective is to provide an opportunity for the world to see the visionary agricultural theme Archie artworks

The students receive one of these

Yes they get a big white life-size cow and they get a farming industry, not just the cattle ( beef or dairy) industry, they may get the pork, or cotton, or wool or the grains  industry or maybe even the poultry/egg industry.

Often the students and teachers go shock horror how do we share the pork, egg, wool or cotton industry on a cow

Well that’s the challenge we ask the students to see Archie not as a cow but as a blank canvas

How they do this is mind-blowing and back to gobsmacked almost 185,000 people viewed the blog post poll asking them to vote for their favourite #Archie17. Yes you read it right one hundred and eighty five THOUSAND people have viewed the students artworks. More than 60,000 of those people voted and the word spread via 3000 plus Facebook share

From Day One it was clear two schools were the front runners. These two schools used multiple vehicle to crowd source. Beaudesert State High School tapped into their local paper the Beaudesert Times who did a brilliant job of getting the word out in print and online via videos and Facebook. In the end it is obvious the whole of Beaudersert supported their local school. Giving Beaudesert a run for their money was Blacktown Girls High School who had their local MP crowd source for them. Then the domino effect kicked in our supporting partners reached out to all their contacts.

Hunter Local Land Services tapped into ABC radio and they came onboard as only ABC Rural can getting the stories out to their listeners. The interviews started. They interviewed school young farming champions, the interviewed school, they showcased the Archies on Facebook. An Archie even became the header for their Facebook page.

The end result who one, well the answer is currently locked in a safe and you will have to wait until it is officially at The Archibull Prize Awards and Exhibition Day on November 21.

In reality the world has already told you who won and that’s every school won because the world has seen how creative and innovative Australian school students are

Imagine how much exposure the Australian agriculture sector would get if we had Imagine, if 20 schools and government agencies and forward-thinking businesses in each state partnered with our farming industries each year

That’s 10,000-young people in each state, that’s 70,000-young people across Australia who could be inspired to be stewards for the landscape and the agricultural sector.

That’s our big opportunity how does the agriculture sector work together to engage with the bright, creative, innovative young people and expose them to the agriculture sector and inspire them to seek out a career in our sector

@archibull @art4agriculture @Ozfarmers #Archie17 #AgDay #beautbovines #colourfulcows #youthinag #youthinedu #farming #farmers #agriculture

       Not joining the 160 people celebrating National Ag Day by attending The Archibull Prize Awards and Exhibition Day you too can celebrate National Ag Day. Visit the website here to find out how