Springtime in Animal Husbandry
It feels like spring in Animal Husbandry at the moment with the arrival of baby season. Our sheep have all lambed now and we have 15 happy and healthy lambs who are bouncing around the paddocks. The goats have all kidded this week with our mums Evie, Haley, and Tarraleah having 7 kids, 3 boys and 4 girls who are all getting to explore their new world. We are lucky to have been loaned 3 Holstein Calves from the Geard family at Green Glory Dairy so they can complete the Cows Create Careers Program. Students are learning how to care for these animals during their fragile first months by handling them, weighing them, training them to walk on halters, making and feeding bottles, ear tagging and watching the Vet give vaccinations.
Students completing the Cows Create Career Program will be entering a competition against other schools nationwide on what they have learnt about their calves and the dairy industry. We have had the Kinder and Prep classes visit last week to learn all about the different animals and help the Animal Husbandry students complete their Animal Care tasks by helping feed, brush the ponies, rake the paddocks and fill hay nets! All students learnt a lot from this, the younger students learning what it takes to care for a range of animals and older students learning what is needed when teaching someone their skills.
In Term 4 we will be attending the Hobart Show, Brighton Show, and Huon Show, where students will be showing the sheep, goats, chickens and ponies. This means students are already thinking about getting their animals in show condition by training them to walk and stand correctly and used to being handled, washed and trimmed. Next term come and visit the Animal Husbandry Show Team at one of the shows and say hi!
A Catholic School in the Salesian Tradition
