Calves given extra attention
Excited students at Nilma Primary School have welcomed special visitors to their school.
Through Dairy Australia’s Cows Create Careers farm module project, students will learn about dairy industry careers in a handson way.
Over three weeks students will rear and care for two three-weekold calves.
A local dairy farmer has taught the students how to care for the calves and demonstrated skills such as animal husbandry, feeding and weighing.
Each day students work through a checklist to care for their calves, Cadbury and Ushi (the Japanese word for cow in a connection with students’ study of that language).
Students start their morning collecting milk from the farmer at the farm gate and putting it into feeder bottles.
They feed, measure and complete a health checklist before replenishing grain, clean water and Lucerne.
To finish the day students muck out the pen and put down new hay if needed before washing out bottles and feeders ready for the next day.
An industry advocate will also visit the school to speak about their career in the dairy industry.
Cows Create Careers was originally established in 2004 with dairy farmers in the Strzelecki Lions Club and nine Gippsland schools. It has now grown to more than 244 schools across Australia with 13,163 students completing the project in 2017.
Warragul Regional College and Poowong Consolidated School are other local schools taking part in the program this year.
Upon completion of the project, students and teachers will be recognised at an interactive presentation day, where there will be industry-based games and prizes awarded to the winning teams and schools.