Farm Enterprises

Grains

Seeding continues, but with some smiling faces now!  We are very close to the end with approximately 200ha to go.  We are sowing wheat at the moment, then the triticale. Students are powering through their crop establishment observations for Certificate II and III in Agriculture. There have also been a few students out operating the SP sprayer, with many more spraying hours to come.

Piggery

The new pregnancy scanner attachment has arrived, and the Certificate III in Pork students will be busy taking happy snaps of the pregnant sows today.  Look out for some more awesome photos in the next Chatter!  Other than that, the farrowing shed is full, there are baconers ready for market, and plenty for the students to do throughout the day.  

Just a reminder to all students that SWILL FEEDING of pigs is ILLEGAL.  You can't feed any food or food scraps to the pigs.  Food is not allowed in the College Piggery, so please ensure you have finished your morning tea or lunch before re-entering the facility.

Sheep

Staff and students have been busy checking lambing ewes and feeding out lupins and hay.  As part of the Ewe Mortality Project that the College is a part of, each dead ewe is recorded, and post-mortems conducted if required.  This is a nationwide project gathering information on reasons for ewe losses during the lambing period.  We look forward to seeing the results from throughout Australia.

Cattle

With only 7 cows left to calve, we have calves running around everywhere.  We have a tally of 18 heifers and 4 bulls so far!  It's definitely a year for the girls.  We have been able to slow our feeding slightly, but the girls still need a bit of extra tucker to keep their condition stable. Considering the poor growing season so far and the rationing of supplementary feed, we are very happy with the condition of the cattle.