Farm Manager

Geoff.Howell

Geoffrey.Howell@education.wa.edu.au

With the College enduring a tough pasture growing season,  it has been a welcome relief to finally have some warm weather along with some welcomed rain.  This has finely allowed pasture growth to get ahead of the demand put on it by our livestock enterprises.

Term 3 has been a particularly busy term as we start to wrap up the Year 12s Certificate II and III.  We need all students to remain focused to complete any work that needs to be done.

Excursions seem to be the flavour on the month with staff and students participating in a number this term.

Katanning AWI Expo

Mr Adams, Mr Gelmi and Jono Prosser travelled to Katanning with 16 students to compete against Narrogin and Denmark in the Ag College Challenge at the Katanning Expo.

Students participated in the shearing, wool handling, ewe judging and cross breed Meat Judging events . Having won in 2018 the pressure was on Mr Adams and the students to repeat the win this year.

The results were as follows;

Royal Show Qualifying

India Christian - 1st Royal Show Merino Fleece Judging

Mistyrose Kokiri – 2nd Royal Show Merino Fleece Judging

Luke Pfitzner – 4th Merino Sheep Judging

Henry Dobson – 5th Merino Sheep Judging

AWI Challenge

Team 1 - 2nd place

Team 2 – 3rd place

Mistyrose Kokiri – 1st Wool Handling

Luke Pfitzner – 2st Merino Judging

Matthew Wilson – 1st Cross Breed Meat Judging

Congratulations must go to all the students and Mr Adams and to Mistyrose Kokiri who won the individual wool handling . The team will now head to the Perth Royal Show to compete on Tuesday the 1st of October.

Murdoch University Tour

The Certificate II  Beef students,  Mr Millichamp and Mr Venables  attended Murdoch University Veterinarian Campus, Clinic and toured the farm.

Sheep Excursion

Certificate III students attended Narrogin Ag for a Technology in the Sheep Industry Field Day hosted by Landmark.   

Mr Adams also took four Year 10 students to Curlew Creek Poll Dorset Stud to purchase a new ram.

Preparing for Spring on Farm

With spring upon us staff and students have been busy applying  fertilizer to our hay paddocks in preparation for fodder conservation.   Mr Forrest has been servicing our hay equipment giving students a chance to complete assessments in our workshop section.  Hopefully we can make some silage rolls in the last week of this term.

Dowerin Field Day

Mr Morris, Mrs Kerr and I travelled to the Dowerin Field Day to watch our Year 11 team compete in the Ag College fencing challenge.  Students looked fantastic and did a great job in constructing their fence.

Farm Skills

With farm skills being held on Thursday 26th September,  staff and students have been spending Friday’s training for the various events.  This has required a lot of additional work from our trainers,  I would to thank them for their dedication.