Thursday April 17, 2014

Day 68..

Land based machinery operations practical

Rolling, harrowing and measuring a hectare!!! Today we practiced some farming on Sheepwalks East - a permanent grazing field. First I had a go at harrowing - this is a heavy frame implement that has tines or discs inside it that are used to level the ground, stir the soil, break up clods, and destroy weeds. This implement was mounted onto the back of the tractor by the drawbar and care had to be taken going round corners as it was a metre bigger than the tractor either side. Next was rolling - a heavy cylinder type implement that is pulled by the tractor and used to help the establishment and growth of crops in the early stages, usually just after drilling for the best effect.

Rolling consolidates the soil around the young seed which helps make moisture and nutrients more available to the young plant.
While it was not our turn in the tractors we used a trundle wheel to work out the size of one hectare - which is the metric measurement of an area which is 100 m by 100 m (10000 square metres). An acre is approximately 0.4047 hectares and one hectare contains roughly 2.47 acres!


Livestock husbandry - extra practical

This afternoon we ear tagged the first set of lambs. These tags were identification tags for farm use and ran in numerical order from number 1 onwards and recorded in the lambing book. Ear tags are a legal requirement when keeping livestock and depending what animal you have there are different rules, so you must be aware of your responsibilities. Registration, identification, and accurate recording and reporting of sheep movements is used to ensure their traceability, and to minimise the risk of disease transmission and maximise the possibility of controlling the spread during an outbreak.
Rules according to DEFRA (the department for environment, food and rural affairs) state:-
You must identify your sheep within:

• six months of birth if housed overnight
• nine months of birth if not housed overnight
• whenever they move off the holding of birth if this is sooner

If they will be kept for longer than 12 months you must apply two identifiers (typically ear tags). Both will bear the same unique individual ID number. For sheep one must be electronic.
If they are intended for slaughter within 12 months of age you have the option to identify them with a single ear tag (showing only your flock/herd mark).