Farm
Welcome back everyone to Term 2! As the weather cools down, the activities on farm heat up. We have seeding, calving, lambing, spraying, and fencing on the cards for this term - and that's just the beginning ...
Grains
Seeding has started and the recent rain has been lovely. Certificate II and III in Agriculture students have been getting the chance to get out on the airseeder with Mr de Beer or Mr O'Driscoll and work on their Establish Agricultural Crops unit of competency.
Cattle
To start off, we'd like to welcome Mrs Moore to the Farm team on a full-time basis. I'm sure the students are going to benefit from having full-time cattle Technical Officer (TO) to teach them the ropes and allow consistent care to the cattle herd.
The cows have started calving, and we have 5 little Angus x Simmental cherubs zooming around so far. Mrs Moore and students do multiple checks per day looking for signs of impending birth and monitoring the health of the newborn calves and their mothers. They're checking for calves thriving, cows mothering their calves well, adequate milk production, delivery of afterbirth, identifying cows/heifers getting close to calving, and general overall health and wellbeing of the herd. We look forward to having some photos in our next Chatter.
Sheep
The Class feed trial has begun, with 3 mobs of sheep being fed a different ration over a number of weeks with weekly weigh-ins and fat/muscle scanning. The results are being recorded and collated by students in the Animal Production Systems class, and it's great to see another year of this feed trial collaboration between Farm and Class.
At the end of the trial, some sheep from each mob will be slaughtered and processed and the quality of the meat assessed for animals on each feed type.
Pregnancy scanning on our ewes will be undertaken this week, with mobs then being separated into empty, singles and multiples for effective management of feed leading up to and after lambing.
Miss Baker has been carefully selecting paddocks suitable for each mob, with lambing paddocks requiring adequate shelter, access to feed, and protection from predators. The alpacas will be earning their keep in the upcoming months!
The stud Poll Dorset (PD) ewes are starting to 'bag up', so we should have some cute little PD lambs running around in no time. Hopefully we'll have some photos for our next edition of Chatter. It's going to be a baby bombardment!
Pigs
The piggery is packed full at present, with the usual feeding, mating, farrowing, weaning, vaccinating, moving, weighing, and slap branding tasks being undertaken, along with endless cleaning and maintenance tasks.
Did you know our pigs are ready for processing at just 16 - 18 weeks old? This just goes to show the fast turnover of animals in the College facility.
During these short months, there are tonnes of different feeds made - tailored to each specific stage of production. They are moved to different sheds according to their size, and monitored, weighed and selected ready for transport to the Linley Valley abattoir.
Our grower domes are so close to being operational that we can almost taste it! They are looking great (and so clean), and Miss Read is looking forward to getting some pigs into them in the near future. The pigs will have room to run around and play in the straw, which is great enrichment for them and will allow them room to grow and be healthy. With winter coming up, I'm sure it will be fun discovering animals who have buried themselves in the straw to keep warm. We'll be sure to get pictures!
Butcher
With the return of students, comes the need to restock the freezer with home-grown meat. Mr Marshall and students have been busy processing sheep and pigs over the last week. There have been some delightful sausages produced in the shop recently, so we hope the students enjoy the new flavours and are proud of their snag-tying skills!
Weekend duty
- Saturday 2 May - Zaine, Joseph
Sunday 3 May - Zaine, Joseph, Mollie, Sam C, Ruby
- Saturday 9 May - Sadie, Blair C, Elisa
Sunday 10 May - Blair C, Elisa, Tyson, Lachlan
Please keep an eye on the weekend duty roster and your emails. I will email you a reminder of your weekend duty a few weeks beforehand (unless a recent student swap has occurred). If you have any questions about the weekend duty roster, please come and see me. Mrs Iles
Uniform reminder
Just a reminder about Farm uniforms. Please ensure you are wearing the correct attire to Farm each week. Be sure to replace any clothing that may be torn or covered in stains.
Hats are still required, steel capped boots, no jewellery, and hair that touches the shirt collar must be tied up.
Mrs K Iles
Assistant Farm Manager