YEAR 10 agriculture students at Canobolas Rural Technology High School have been rearing two Friesian calves as part of an initiative promoting a future in the dairy industry.
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The Cows Create Careers program is a Dairy Australia initiative and agriculture teacher Chrissie Hallett says it has been such a success she will request to take part again next year.
The calves were supplied by Linda Kinsela from Glenrowan Dairy at Canowindra.
“It was supposed to be three weeks, but we were having so much fun that they have kept them [an extra week],” Miss Hallett said.
Not only was it a great opportunity to show students the variety of careers that were available in the dairy industry, but some of the younger students had also shown a lot of interest, she said.
As well as looking after the calves, the program also involved a presentation by an industry representative and students learnt about other aspects of dairy farming such as business analysis, environmental management, engineering and products such as cheese and milk.
“It’s not just about dairy farming, there’s lots and lots of jobs in the dairy industry,” Miss Hallett said.
She said the school did not have facilities for keeping large animals, so having the calves on-site gave students a new insight into livestock as well.
Josie O’Neil was one of the students to take part and said they had fed and looked after the calves, as well as monitoring their growth rate, weight and overall health for the past four weeks.
“I live on a farm, but it’s great for people that live in Orange where it’s not rural,” another of the participants, Angel Eade, said.
tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au