Agriculture  

Firstly we would like to welcome our new Agriculture Assistant, Neville Dean, to our team. He has only been with us for a few weeks but is already in to the routine of  monitoring our livestock and maintaining a safe and workable farm for our students. 

There has been lots of excitement this term with a range of livestock activities. 

On the first day of term we had the exciting birth of our young alpaca, Poppy. This young cria has already joined the show team and is happy to follow along behind her mother, father and aunts as training begins for Penrith Show.

The Cattle Team have been busy preparing the Murray Grey steer for the Greater Sydney Steer Competition which will be held in mid August. One of the highlights of this preparation has been the Combined Schools Training Day where students attended workshops to learn how to wash, clip, parade and judge cattle as well as attending talks by industry professionals on meat specifications and the nutrition. Back at school, students have calculated a feeding regime and are monitoring and recording the steer’s progress as well as undergoing some rigorous parading training. It is always good to watch the more experienced students guiding the new recruits. 

Although our own sheep are not due to lamb until next term, we have acquired a young Valais Black Nosed lamb who the students are bottle feeding. This breed is known as “the cutest breed of sheep in the world” and it’s easy to see why. ‘Smudge’ happily follows students around and has attended all of our Agriculture classes. It is a great way for our students to learn about the requirements of young animals and it has been wonderful to see him bring out the gentle nature of so many of our students. He will join the rest of our sheep herd when they start lambing next term.

Year 7 students have been busy harvesting their tomato crops and making them into soup which has been great on these cold days. Their lettuces are growing well and should be ready to package and take home as bags of mixed leaves by the end of the term. 

Year 10 have been learning about dairying so have been working with our goats as well as monitoring the growth of our 2 young calves. And, to ensure that we can provide pasture for these animals, they will be developing their tractor driving skills over the coming weeks. One of these calves was generously donated by Leppington Pastoral Company to be reared for calf raising competition at Penrith Show in August. 

Year 11 and 12 visited Leppington Pastoral Company property at Bringelly where they were given an extensive tour of the dairy and able to witness first hand the range of technology that is used in large farms such as this one. The visit stimulated lots of discussion when we returned to school and provided lots of information that will be invaluable in the upcoming exams. 

As always, it is a pleasure to work with so many enthusiastic students who are always willing to help with the range of jobs that need to be done on the farm.

Ms Atkinson

Agriculture Teacher