Room One Farm Trip
Tuesday 5 June, Room One’s trip to a bunch of farms across the district. We all gathered at school with our bags and lunch, our teacher Mrs Mullin talked to us about which farms we were traveling. Then we all lined up outside of the bus with our clipboard and question we had prepared days before. Everyone is excited to be going on a class trip, to places we hadn’t been before.
First stop was Mr Craw’s and we were looking at small scale dairy farming. Mr Craw had a herringbone
milking shed, where he milked 140 cows. All of the cow’s gave birth to their calves inside where Mr Craw puts 1.4m of bedding, over the season.
Back on the bus we got ready for the next farm which was a deer farm. We were allowed to go in the crush where they chopped off the deer antlers.
The third stop was Mr Fleming's maize and barley silos. We were looking at the machines they use to dry out the maize and barley so that they didn’t go moldy. Next Mr Fleming showed us all the silos that they keep the produce in. The biggest silo held $1,000,000 worth of maze. Mr Fleming then took us around the back to where he makes the cow feed. He mixes maize, barley, palm kernel and a few other ingredients then he moves it to other farms. We then had a chance to look at the tractors and harvester. He had a really old, refurbished harvester that used to be towed by horse.
After we had enough of the silos we set off to the sheep and beef farm. We had lunch before we entered the woolshed. In there were people shearing sheep. He told us about how they use the new pasture and selective breeding to improve the growth of the bulls.
Then we set off to the large scale dairy farm at Mr Fissenden’s.He milked 800 cows in a rotary shed.
We all had a great time and we learned a lot of information including the parents and teacher. Thank you to all the farm keepers who let us on their properties and taught us about how farming has changed over time and has made their jobs easier.
By Fletcher
