Young Farmers with funding from the Red Meat Profit Partnership had a little programme to get 100 schools onto sheep and beef farms and wanted to know if I’d help.
Naturally, I said yes and a few weeks ago rooms 1 and 2 from Takapau School arrived for their visit.
A lifetime ago I’d gone to the school along with my siblings and in time our three boys all lined up for the obligatory photo outside the school gates for their own first day at school.
Despite it being a rural school half the kids come from the township and many said it was their first time on a sheep and beef farm.
We started by running a bunch of volunteers up the race and through the weigh crate and drafted them into three groups with the primes heading off for sale, the stores for a bit more finishing and the scungies for some tender love and care.
Then Max the drafter drafted a line of lambs for real and told them about his role. Quite a few of the kids have parents at the nearby Takapau Silver Fern Farms plant who would be seeing those lambs later in the day.
We had a look at the forestry operation where the harvest was just finishing and talked about trees and the environment.
There was more enthusiasm at the cattle yards and the weigh crate there and this time they all wanted to be drafted through the crate.
Next came a look, from the safety of the bus, at a mob of bulls and the dog mustering them then a finish stuffing their pockets with walnuts.
I tell you all this because I want an excuse for relaying some of the delightful comments from the packet of thank-you letters that arrived.
Kaya: I would love to work on a farm but it wouldn’t be my dream job.
Liam: You’re a great farmer and I want to be just like you.
Zachary: It was the best experience Takapau School has ever given me.
Sheridan: My highlight was picking up the walnuts. I got 26 of them.
Samuel: Its crazy you don’t have any workers.
Hope: I learnt that being a farmer is hard work. I’m glad I’m not a farmer. The sheep dog was soft like a piece of cotton.
Liam M: I didn’t know ryegrass and clover have a relationship with nitrogen.
Korbin: Its sad sheep have just the one bad day like people. Your land is beautiful.
Charlie: Another thing I learnt is how important farming is for the world.
Bailey: One day I’d like to be a farmer and be like you when I’m older.
Sinead: I thought it was astonishing that you have planted 50,000 trees. Your sheep looked very happy. Although it was their one bad day. Your dog Gin was adorable.
Vann: The first thing that I would have to say is that sheep that have been squeezed into a pen look like a very small amount. I thought there were only 45 but you said there were 125 after we guessed. In short, now that I have visited your farm I believe that a farmer’s life isn’t for me. I’m too bad at guessing sheep numbers.
