With such a brilliant start to the cropping season our Agriculture classes are all busy with seasonal topics including watching the gym oval converting into a cropping paddock. The Year 9 class are establishing a market garden and have just taken delivery of a new set of 6 week old pigs. They are also trialling a new program from Food and Fibre Education SA called the Food Biosecurity Investigation. We are one of only a handful of schools who have been asked to trial this program and it looks really interesting. The Year 10s have started their own germination trials at home to develop their understanding of the main crops in this district. They have also sown demonstration plots at school which they will monitor across the growing season. Both the Year 11 and 12 classes are working on soils investigations highlighting the crucial role soils have in farm productivity. The Year 12s are also working independently on their Production Investigations. They have set up a range of really interesting investigations including litter size in young sows, oaten hay production, growing Scepter wheat, lambs and kid goats in feedlots, meat rabbits, chicken production from fertilised eggs and lambing percentages in Dohne ewes.

Sue Pratt

Agriculture teacher