Agriculture
Surprise arrival on the farm!
Our resident flock of mostly Suffolk sheep has welcomed the season early with one of our ewes giving birth to a lively pair of ram lambs.
Our Ag and Tech students have been eagerly awaiting these special moments, and the excitement is just beginning with many more lambs expected to arrive soon. Stay tuned for more adorable updates!
New addition to ASC Livestock team
With lambing in full swing we've seen a baby boom here at the ASC School Farm. One particularly exciting addition to our sheep flock was a set of triplet ewe lambs born this past Sunday!
As part of our students learning regarding livestock management we engage in group discussions relating to management decisions we make for our resident livestock. One recent decision has centred around this set of triplets, with us looking at ewe body condition, season quality, feed availability, and lamb size. Students have gotten to learn the different aspects of these factors that influence our management decisions. Based off of this we made the decision to take the smallest lamb off the ewe in the best interest of everyone. Our students now get the pleasure of aiding in the care of our poddy ewe lamb "Domino" which involves daily feedings and socialisations.
Year 8 Agriculture crow protection
Year 8 Agriculture have started an attempt to protect our newborn lambs from a particularly cunning pair of crows that have been harassing our flock.
After some brainstorming and research we settled on first attempting to see if a scarecrow would help based on success other schools have had. Students then went through the design process utilising recycled goods to construct their scarecrows.
We successfully have 1 of the 4 scarecrows that are in creation put out this afternoon with our flock of ewes and lambs. Fingers crossed our students hard work pays off! Will definitely be finishing off the other 3 to hopefully ease some of the stress from our ewes.
New ASC Farm record
With the back end of lambing fast approaching with 5 ewes left to go we've hit a new ASC Farm record for Heaviest newborn lamb!
Yesterday one of our first time lambing ewes needed a bit of assistance to deliver this monster of a ram lamb who was trying to come out in not quite the ideal way. After a fair bit of pulling from Miss White and additional help from Mr Fisher at the end he was here.
Helping this first time ewe was a very insightful experience for year 8 Tech, where we were able to discuss what problems can occur in labour, signs of these problems, and steps to take during and after delivery to care for both ewe and lamb so that we can achieve the best outcome.
24 hour measurements done this morning with year 7 Tech and this yet to be named giant weighed in at a massive 9.0kg! Most single births average 5.5 ~ 6.5kg so this big boy absolutely smashed it. Our students are already debating on what name best suits him and are excited to see how he grows up!
A tiny new addition to the ASC Farm
This Wednesday we welcomed our smallest lamb to be born here at ASC.
A tiny ewe lamb, born as one of a set of twins, weighing in at a tiny 3 kilograms. Pictured are two of our Livestock team kids Albert Waters and Max Clee comparing the new little tiny tot lamb to our biggest born lamb known as "Little John" who weighed 3 times our new additions weight at birth - in this picture he is only 10 days old!
Having these two lambs as been an excellent point of discussion in our Agriculture and Technology classes regarding how genetics and our management decisions can influence our livestock's growth and productivity.
