Agriculture News

Pumpkin Patch to Soup:

Mrs. Kelton kindly assisted the Year 12 and Year 10 agriculture students to make pumpkin soup using this year’s harvest of butternut pumpkins from The Patch. Agriculture students from Years 9-12 enjoyed the soup at recess time.

Year 10:

The Year 10 Agriculture class has continued to immerse themselves in the world of Sheep and Wool. Thanks to CQU, GMLLEN and the RACE Goulburn program, students enjoyed a day out, firstly at the Dookie Campus of the University of Melbourne followed by Toland Merinos at Violet Town.

At Dookie, Brendan Redfern from Shearer Wool handler Training described the characteristics of wool and the processing cycle. Students saw and touched wool at various stages of processing along with wool harvesting equipment, the features of a shearing shed and sheep yards and careers in the wool industry.

At Toland Merinos, owners Anna and Simon answered lots of questions about Merino genetics and breeding programs, husbandry practices and the industry in general. Students then got to work on the drafting race, sorting a mob of ewes into two age groups, before meeting the rams being prepared inside for the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show.

Prior to this excursion, the class participated in a hands-on session in the classroom with Mrs Drinnan, identifying and describing the features of various fleece types and oddments of Merino, Corriedale, Downs and Cheviot wool. They then followed the AWEX formula to create a bale description for each type of wool (what gets branded on the bale).

Year 11/12 unit 1/2:

Year 11 Unit 1 /2 Agriculture and Horticulture students recently enjoyed an excursion to hydroponic farm at Tatura. They learnt about the hydroponic system and its inputs, outputs and processes, Integrated Pest Management and biosecurity, crop nutrition, crop care, picking, packing and careers. They were impressed with the size and scale of the farm, together with the increasing levels of sustainability in this operation.