Students show their talents
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Many secondary school students who have a go at the region's agricultural competition are not from farming backgrounds, but they still want to give rural tasks a try, Land Based Training operations manager Stu Bruce says.
He organises the competition, which was between 11 teams this year.
This year's regional contest was held late last week at Rongotea. The cattle and sheep modules were in the Rongotea saleyards, while the fencing and quad-bike modules were in the grounds near the Rongotea Memorial Hall.
There were four written contests, covering health and safety on farms, coming up with a herbicide spray schedule, identifying weeds, and a general and farming knowledge quiz.
It was run at Pahiatua in recent years. Schools taking part in the regionals included Wairarapa College, Palmerston North Girls' High School, Horowhenua College, Longburn Adventist College, Awatapu College, Palmerston Boys' High School, and Freyberg High School.
Some schools had two teams in the contest. There were five in each team, and most modules were individually based, so each team member had to perform to get a good points tally, Mr Bruce said.
The theory challenges were team events, as was the putting together of the water troughs and the wire fencing.
"The whole purpose of this is to look at what the pupils have learnt before this year, and this year to date, and to put a measure on it. It is about just raising the bar in terms of farm skills."
He said many students study agriculture at school, and some do Gateway programmes (work days out of school), but most don't come from farms.
"A number of them go on to farm schools, university or go into employment on farms, and some do further education while they are employed," Mr Bruce said.
"The contest is to encourage that, and to give school pupils a better appreciation that there are a lot of people out there interested in agriculture. It raises their interest levels, and maybe they form some friendships, too," he said.
Clive Dorn was marking the teams at the cattle module.
"This one is cattle observation. We're getting the students to identify the breeds, how many heifers and steers there are. Estimate their weights, and to draft them into groups on either weight or sex."
The confident students got into the pen with the eight cattle, drafting off the lighter ones. They were marked on all their observations and cattle-handling techniques.
Some of the best ones were great at sorting the lighter cattle and guessing the weights of the heaviest and lightest.
Then it was over to the sheep, where Alastair Lewis was steward.
"We have X number of sheep, some are marked.
"They have to draft the sheep and then count them. So we get two accurate numbers."
He said that is what the farmer wants to know – accurately how many sheep they have.
There were a few traps for young players that Mr Lewis had arranged, such as unlatched gates. The team that came through were Freyberg High School, but their lack of checking meant, although fantastically drafted, the sheep all poured in together.
It meant they had to be redrafted, which lost the team valuable points and time. Some handled stock with ease, while others were not used to sheep and cattle at all.
The winner was Palmerston North Boys' High School, which featured team members from two farming families.
The team found fencing, stock observation and other work a doddle.
Second was Feilding High School's B team, and third was Wairarapa College.
All three teams will compete with the best three teams from Whanganui, Taranaki, and Waikato, at the North Island schools agricultural contest, on October 19 at Otiwhiti Station, near Hunterville.
- © Fairfax NZ News
