Wednesday March 26, 2014

Day 64..

AM  Maths test revisited!!! We arrived today and were re-directed to the computer room to re-sit the maths test that we took at the beginning of the year (but did not have enough time to finish!). Sprung upon us again but at least I got a far better result today (not as good as I could have achieved by any means - so here's to some extra maths revision). Maths is extremely important within the agricultural industry, from calculating fertiliser rates to correct weight loads of a tele-handler.
Back in lesson we played a matching pairs game with picture and written descriptions of sprayers and fertilisers and associated equipment. With a matching pair we then took it in turns to tell the rest of the class about our cards and elaborate where necessary.

PM  We started off with some lamb administration - weights, tails ringed and if they were little boys then their bits were ringed too! Each lamb then marked up with the next number and the number applied to mum with a corresponding number of dots for the number of lambs! We turned the nursery pen out to the field and the day olds to the nursery pen.
We then took a risk assessment of our next task.. Condition scoring some Lincoln red heifers using a cattle crush (handling system). We looked for all the potential hazards from the animals to the pen to the crush before rounding up the girls.
The body condition is assessed on a scale of 1-5 (1 being too thin and 5 being too fat). The tail head is assessed by standing directly behind the cow. The trailhead is scored by feeling for the amount of fat around the trailhead and the prominence of the pelvic bones. The loins and ribs are assessed from the side of the cow. The loin is scored by feeling the horizontal and vertical projections of the vertebrae and the amount of fat between them. The ribs are scored using the flat of the hand and fingertips to feel the amount of fat cover. Our best heifer was 368 scoring 3.5!.

***First smiley face sticker received!!!! (as part of our brand new class discipline regime)