Herbie Sumner is a Tutor from Sparsholt College who is teaching the NVQ Level 1 in Land Based Management to pupils from Testbourne School. Here you will find his weekly diary covering the work carried out here at Laverstoke Park Farm.
3rd to 8th October 2007
Due to the current outbreak of Foot & Mouth Disease, the students have been busily creating a nature habitat at Testbourne School. This has included building and lining a pond and clearing and tidying scrubland. This activity has allowed the students to understand the importance and link between agriculture, environment and wildlife. Hopefully in the summer months ducks will nest on the pond and newts, frogs and toads will populate the margins.
15th October
Cast your minds back nearly 12 months and you would have read about the group carrying out biodynamic agriculture, and burying cattle horns full of cow manure. To see the report click here and scroll down to November. Today the students had to dig up the horns and scrape out the composted manure. This in turn will be mixed with water and spread over the fields. When emptied, the horns were then re-filled with fresh manure and buried ready for next year.
29th October - 5th November
These two weeks saw the students working on their animal handling skills learnt in the first year. Firstly they had to separate males and female buffalo calves, moving the heifers up to the top beef barn, and returning the male calves to the main dairy complex. Secondly they had to check the ear tags and weigh older heifer calves. These tasks were completed successfully, causing minimal stress to the animals.
12th November
Today the students were carrying out health checks on Jersey calves and completing necessary work sheets. They were also learning about common calf diseases, scour, pneumonia and joint ill / navel ill. By the end of the session the students were able to explain the disease and the symptoms the calves were showing. We were also visited by HRH The Duke of Gloucester, who quizzed them on their knowledge of agriculture and farm animals, at which the students excelled.
26th November
With Christmas fast approaching, everyone is thinking about Christmas dinner and Turkeys. So with that thought, we headed up to the poultry fields where the free range turkeys and chickens are housed. The task was to move the electric fence around the turkey paddock to allow them access to fresh grass, without loosing any turkeys. With a bit of teamwork and management, the students successfully moved and erected the electric fence and re sited the feeders and water troughs without loosing any birds.
13th December
Today saw the first visit to the new pig site for the year. After continual rain the students had been asked to assist new pig manager, Barry, with bedding up the growing pigs and dry sows. As anyone who has worked with outdoor pigs will know, right on cue came the wind and rain! This did not deter the students, though some did take shelter in the pig huts, as the huts were soon bedded up. In the new year it is planned that Barry will get the students helping with weaning the piglets and feeding the sows, all working towards their qualification.
20th December
So the last Wednesday afternoon before the Christmas break, and it was back to the dairy. This time the students had to run the buffalo calves through the handling system again and re-weigh them. You may ask why we keep weighing them, but it’s important that the farmer knows that his animals are growing, and at how much per day. Having weighed these animals twice, 35 days apart, the students will now go back to Testbourne School and calculate the animals daily live weight gain (DLWG). With the information gained by the students, Andy, the Dairy Manager, can feed his buffalo calves accordingly, so they are healthy and grow.
Spring Term Diary is on page 2
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