Okehampton students start Care Farming

Friday morning saw the start of our Care Farming project with Okehampton College students.

I have been a bit of a mix between excited and some what nervous as we begin our Care Farming sessions for 2017, as we now have 2 schools on board.  But I have nothing to worry about, the students have been great!

Okehampton joined us by about 10am friday morning.  We started with an introduction to the farm and us, what we will be doing, health and safety and expectations.  It was a good start!

We then took the students around the farm, feeding the cattle as we went; cleaning out and feeding the chickens and bedding up 2 pens ready for the arrival of our calves next week.  The drinker was cleaned out, the troughs scrubbed, the hay racks hung up ready and lots of lovely straw spread out in the pens.

We then took these students off to Kivells market too, to see James Morrish, who was sorting out all the machinery and items coming in for the saturday machinery sale.  James very kindly gave up some of his time to talk to the students about what was happening, the history of the markets, a tour of the pens/dairy ring/showers and milking parlour and a quick look in the calf section.  Although there were no animals in that day, it was still a very interesting tour.

We also gave these students a challenge, to pick a few lot numbers for the sale, together with a price.  I will also need to speak to Kivells on monday for the actual prices to see who came close, or not!

We are looking forward to next week, when we will have some baby calves in to start looking after.