Farm Manager Report

What's in store going forward?

The following is a snapshot of what is planned for our farm enterprises. Many of these activities contribute to the learning and development of our students, as they continue to develop their skills in the agricultural arena.  

• Pasture renovation on traditional kikuyu paddocks using the speed tiller.
• Early seeding using quality high performing grass varieties.
• Lime and fertilizer applications.
• Review the current machinery replacement schedule and present a submission to the Trust for required new machinery.
• Crush 4000 cubic metres of gravel and construct roadways throughout the Eastern Block.
• Develop Harris Block: This includes, building a quality road from the South Coast Highway to the pine plantation. Building a laneway along the road and subdividing the large paddock into four five hectare paddocks. Install a water tank and pipelines to supply livestock troughs throughout the area. Fence off the wet land and plant native trees (completed by the WICC).
• Thin out and harvest suitable pine logs from the plantation. Excess logs will be treated and stockpiled for fencing requirements going forward. Sell suitable product if available.
• Later in the season investigate the use of summer crops sown in the low lying wetter areas through the Eastern Block.
• Proceed to plan for the construction of a fertilizer shed on site and purchase associated resources such as a grain/ fertilizer bin to fit the tipping truck.
• Purchase and install a new silo to store calf pellets at the Dairy.
• Build horse stables and cattle shelters throughout the Cattle Club area.
• Continue building the livestock enterprises such as: Breed adequate numbers of Corriedale rams to meet market demand. Continue replacing older sheep with quality merino hoggets until flock numbers are consistent and a culling program can be implemented efficiently.
• Use Simmental cattle for Bull sales and student participation at livestock events. Recent success at Wagin Woolorama winning the Multi-breed junior bull competition with an outstanding young bull bred at the College.
• Continue culling unproductive commercial cows. Use quality semen to artificially inseminate females, building a larger selection pool for replacements going forward. Join thirty percent to black Limousin bulls for hybrid vigour and carcass quality.
• Continue training Denmark students to be leaders in their fields with an emphasis on farm safety, work ethic, skills and presentation.
• Continue promoting the College and the College farm’s produce throughout local and regional centres with sheep and cattle events.

Gate to Plate

Students from Year 11 and Year12 attended the Harvey Beef 2021 Gate to Plate Beef Field Day and Schools Challenge. This provided students with the opportunity to mingle with business owners and farmers and listen to several guest speakers talking on a wide range of topics. The Schools Challenge, which is held on the Wednesday, is a contest of general cattle knowledge and livestock handling tasks, where the teams were split up randomly and assigned challenges. 

Denmark students from both teams won several individual events and represented themselves and the College in an excellent manner. Zoe Skinner and Libby Miell were placed second and third overall out of all the events. Other students who achieved placing results included Josh Coole, Jorja Waters, Jacana Vincent, Hamish Bowie and Michael Cottle. 

Denmark Team 1 was placed overall runner up Champions to Cunderdin Ag College. The two day events were a great opportunity for students to network with local graziers and businesses and to test their skills and knowledge against students from other schools.

Supreme Champion

A team of students from the College attended the Wagin Woolorama to show 12 Corriedale Rams and Ewes and also participate in Wool and Sheep junior judging competitions. We performed exceptionally well in both Junior Judging and the Merino Wool Competition. Five fleeces were entered into the Merino wool competition and WACoA-Denmark was awarded Supreme Champion fine wool fleece, 2nd and 3rd place in the medium category and 3rd in the super fine category. The major award however was the Schools Competition where Denmark was awarded Champion School, combining all the points from the sheep events.

Year 12 student Hamish Bowie was awarded Champion Junior Judge over all events, Merino, Beef Cattle and Wool. With 98 other students from different schools and colleges competing, this was an exceptional outcome. Tom Regan placed second in Merino Ram Judging, a great effort at his first attempt.

Inlet Views "Reality R9 Junior Bull” placed first in his class and won the Euro Breed Junior Champion Bull; then also placed first in the Multi-Breed Junior Champion Bull.

Our students also did exceptionally well in the Cattle Parading Events with Zoe Skinner coming 1st in the first division, followed by Tomas O’Farrell (2nd) and Ella Smith (3rd). In the second heat Rori Skinner placed 2nd and Libby Miell 4th. In the Final-All Age Groups, these students and Ella Smith all placed. Lachlan Johnson won 1st place in the Student Parader’s event.  These students now qualify to compete in the Perth Royal Show later in the year.

As there was no other competition in the Corriedale sheep division, the College won champion Ram and Ewe under twelve month categories.

The student’s presentation and professionalism was outstanding and they all appeared to enjoy the event and the experience.