The Last of the Farms
Yesterday we had our last real farm trip but we went out with a bang, another three farm day! I won't bore you with the details and I'll try to keep this short and sweet. The first farm we visited was Rosehill farm. It was different from any of the farms we visited because it was a very wet farm and actually needed to drain water from the land, not irrigate it. The owners were very nice and got onto our bus to give us a guided tour of their farm where they grow some crops but mainly raise sheep and beef cattle. The best part was when we drove through the cattle field, the cows just looked at us a little and saundered away from the bus, they weren't scared at all! After this farm we stopped for lunch at a camp ground and crossed over two bridges by foot so we could get some good pictures and met our bus on the other side. Then we headed over to the Chaffey farm (the one I had to write my Ag Blog on). This farm is fully irrigated and grows crops and grazes cows in the winter (and heifers in the summer) for the dairy industry. He also gave us a guided tour on our bus after he had talked to us for a while on his lawn. The third farm was the Reid farm where we got to see sheep sheering in action! It was really cool and the sheerers can sheer a sheep in just over one minute! The Reid farm also grows crops (but mostly for seed), raises sheep (mainly for meat), finishes lambs and calves, and is the grounds for some grass experiments by outside parties. Overall it was a very educational day and we got to see some new kinds of farms which was pretty exciting!
Why was the first farm a wet farm-was it because of its overall location? Also, what do you mean by "finishes lambs and calves"?
ReplyDeleteYes, the weather in New Zealand is pretty varied and that location gets twice as much rainfall as the area I am in now. Finishing means he buys young lambs and calves that are not ready to be sold for meat, they are not at their market weight yet, and keeps them on his farm until they are ready for market.
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