Wednesday April 23, 2014

Day 69..

AM - Machinery Operations Theory
This morning we carried self surveys with regards to certain practices that take place in or around a farm workshop, for example using the right tools for the right job and how to service a baler and the procedure for gas welding. Our marks we recorded on the board and then each of the tasks was given to 1 or 2 students who then needed to devise an assignment style question relating to the subject. these questions were then judged for the better of the two and then we took it in turns to answer the questions as a group before re-scoring ourselves now that we had been thinking about the topics in more detail.
We then had an introduction to calibrating sprayers which is an important job before setting off to spray your crops. All sprayers, big or small, trailed or self propelled, must be calibrated according to the application rates of the chemicals that are being used. Therefore, it is essential for a user to know how to calibrate a sprayer. You are most likely to need to adjust your sprayer according to the current spraying conditions along with volume rate, driving speed, nozzles and spray pressure. We will carry out calibration during practical tomorrow.


PM - Livestock Husbandry Practical
Today we re-visited the pig farm of Andrew Baugh near Wellow. One of our new assignments is about animal housing systems so the idea was to look more closely at the different housing systems in place both at the outdoor rearing unit and the finishing units at the farm.