Every cloud has a silver lining and the silver lining in the current state of affairs are our young farming champions. Of course we had already met Tim, but there are so many other young people in agriculture doing amazing things. Our teacher told us about meeting them and said they were full of positivity and hope for the future. That is why we decided to capture a piece of their viewpoint in our rainbow.
The rainbow is positioned underneath the drought stricken land. There is not one solution to ongoing drought and climate change. It is a complex issue and it is going to take critical thinking and numerous people to change it. Our young farming champions are leading the way.
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On Friday the 29th June we met our young farming champion Tim Eyes at his farm in Wyong Creek. We got out of the bus and were greeted by Tim and Hannah and their farm dog. Tim took us to see the different crops he was growing so that the cows had sufficient food to eat. Some of the crops included types of grass, oats and potatoes. We enjoyed getting our hands dirty while digging for potatoes. Tim then introduced us to Joyce the dairy cow and her adopted calf. We named the calf DJ Ravioli! John enjoyed helping hand catch the calf so that we could walk and pat it. We then had the opportunity to milk Joyce. What an experience for those that were brave! Following this, Hannah had to take the mareema sheepdog away so we could visit the chickens. This dog was amazing. He protects the chickens like the dog from the movie Oddball protected the penguins. John and Aaliyah collected two cartons of eggs from the chickens while Catriona gave them a cuddle. We then met the cattle. We had to call them down the hill by calling “C’mon”. To be honest it was a bit frightening when they all ran towards the fence. We were able to feed them while we learnt about the beef industry from Tim. We discussed different types of cattle, how they breed, the abattoirs and the various products beef are used for. Lunch was cooked by Hannah... mmmm.... beef sausages. We picked oranges from the mini orchard and ate them after lunch. They were delicious. Tim let us take some home. We finished the day with a mini photo shoot for the Central Coast Express Advocate. We can't wait to see ourselves in the paper. We were sad to leave Tim, Hannah and the farm and can't wait to spend more time there in the future This is some of what we leant: “Different types of grass thrive or die depending on the season.” – Aaliyah “The bull is only brought in for a short period of time to breed with the cows.” – John “Potatoes grow in the ground. Seeing that blew my socks off.” – Brandan (aka HoP) “There are beef products in many of our medicines.” – Amy “I learnt how to milk a cow. It was strange.” – Catriona “I realised how much work each farmer has to put in to grow a cow.” – Aaron We thank Tim, Hannah and Tim's family for having us on their property. How lucky are we to have such a great mentor?!! Today we delved into the world of biosecurity. This was a new concept to us and something we had to learn about. We began by watching a video about Pirates of the Caribbean… ok, maybe it was more about Johnny Depp’s dogs. This was a good introduction to biosecurity. We kind of understood what Miss was talking about now. We broke into two groups, or airports – Melbourne and Sydney. Each of us had to fill in a passenger card and declare what we had brought into school that day. We all ticked the question about recent contact with farm animals and farms due to our farm visit in the last fortnight. We discussed the reasons why these questions were asked and began to collect our thinking around biosecurity and add it to the think tank. We had a number of items that needed testing from airport security. These items included a soccer boot (probably because the world cup was coming up), a shell, a wooden bead, a leaf and a quarter of a honey sandwich. You can learn more about our experiment and what we learnt here. This was an interesting introduction that helped us understand the concept of biosecurity. We visited the National Pest and Disease Outbreak website and looked at current threats in NSW. Luckily Lil’ T-Bone had nothing to worry about at the moment. However, bananas in the Northern Territory have to beware of the Banana Freckle! We also discussed how Virginia at Grace Springs Farm (which we have visited) could ensure her property was safe from any threats.
This weeks archibull session was topped off by some fabulous beef sliders prepared by Michaela and John. As it was such a lovely day we took our lunch outside and discussed possible creative ideas for our archi. We also wrote some questions for TIm and can't wait to meat him next week. |
AuthorThe amazing students from The Lakes College, Youth Off The Streets Archives
September 2018
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