On Thursday March 13 our Ag and Hort class went on an excursion to the Kelly’s piggery. This was part of our area of study, intensive farming, so the Kelly’s farm was a golden opportunity. Their farm is part of a farrow to finish, which includes all phases of breeding pigs. We got to see all the stages of production, breeding, gestation, farrowing, lactation, weening, and then growing the pigs to market weight. Some of the highlights were seeing the old farrowing sheds compared to the newer more advanced shed and the technology they use.
After lunch we headed out to John (Bull) Clohesys feedlot to be shown the stages that the lambs need to go through until they are heavy enough to be sold at market. They start the new lambs on a normal feed but add a special additive to the water to settle the lambs stomachs while they get used to the feed and lowers the stress. John has said that this has been a gamechanger, lowering the mortality rate unbelievably. As the lambs gain weight, they move them from one pen to another increasing the amount of protein and energy in their diet until they’re ready to be sold. We found that the purpose of intensive farming and feed lotting was to increase the production of livestock in a more efficient and shorter amount of time.
We would like to thank Miss Matthews for organising the excursion and to John Clohesy and the Kelly family for taking time out of their day to show us around their farms.

-Archie Alday