Wednesday January 29, 2014

Day 43..

Last soil lesson with mark boo - as we have really enjoyed these lessons its sad that its the last.. however, he set us straight to work on crops.. Key crops grown in agriculture to be exact and their relation to each other with regards to rotational growing. Crops are split in to groups known as cereals; winter wheat (first and second crop), spring wheat, winter barley, spring barley, winter oats, spring oats, rye and triticale, brassicas; winter oil seed rape and spring oil seed rape, legumes; winter and spring beans, combining peas and vining peas, along with spring linseed, potatoes, sugar beet and set-aside. Each of these belongs to a scoring system taking into account financial data, physical properties - crop cover and structure and chemical properties - Nitrogen off take and Nitrogen transfer. And, it is by combining all this information that we are able to plan a crop rotation program as well as utilising soil type and location and long term requirements. Crop rotations offer significant benefits to farmers, rebuilding nutrients and helping to reduce disease, pest and weed attacks <- due to their crop cover, winter crops are much better for weed control (planting in spring allows weeds to grow on the land during winter months when there is no 'crop cover'.

Lamma presentation done! All our team were present and correct and up first to talk about gps and automated steering systems. We took it in turns talking through the slides and on our specialist pieces each (Mandy - John Deere, Harry - Trimble and myself - TractorGPS). We were able to show a video online and answers questions at the end! We then took our seats for the next show..

And this little piggy.. Does end up as a chop! This afternoon our practical group visited Andrew Baugh's pig farm, near Wellow. All his breeding sows (female pigs) - landrace durock crosses, are bought in due to their mothering qualities, however, all the piglets remain on the farm and pass through the 'finishing' process before being sent away for slaughter! Each sow will have approximately 7 litters of 12 piglets before being culled - producing roughly 84 piglets in total. The piglets start their life outside being born in ark paddocks and staying with their mums until they are four weeks old. They then move in groups of around fifty piglets into the 'kozikennel' paddocks (weaning) before moving to the farm finishing units where they live in covered runs with an indoor and outdoor area. The piglets were really cute, but be warned, mother pigs do not like their piglets to be disturbed and can become very aggressive if they think they are under attack!