Agricultural Day
This year our Agricultural Day is to be held on Tuesday 15th of October, the first week of Term Four.
This year we would love to get as many children involved as possible.
Now is the time to think about taking up the challenge of rearing an animal for Agricultural Day. Please let us know if you would like to be a part of it.
Lambs and Goats
We will run the Lamb and Goat competition as usual. The school can help with sourcing lambs and goats and provide tips and advice on rearing them. Lambs and Goats can also compete at North Waikato Group Day on Monday 21 October and at the Waikato show on Friday 1 November if you choose.
Calves
Please indicate if your child would like to bring a calf to Agday. If there is enough interest, we will be happy to run a calf competition and will put in place procedures recommended by MPI for biosecurity. Please note the calves will have to be sourced from a dairy farm that has been milk tested for Mycoplasma bovis and you will be asked to provide a copy of the negative results certificate. There are no calf competitions at Group Day or at the Waikato Show again this year.
Chickens - New this year!!!!
A couple of other schools in our area have run a chicken competition with their Agriculture days for the last few years. Chickens can be very rewarding for a child to rear and we would like to incorporate this into our Ag Day as well.
A batch of 1 day old red/brown shaver chicks will be ordered and will be delivered to the school at the beginning of September. The children will rear the chicks at home for approximately 6 weeks and bring them to school on Agday for judging. Chickens will be judged on 3 categories; Rearing (appearance and health), Children's knowledge and handling and a Diary that the children will keep about the life of their chicken.
Chickens are very easy to rear. They only require 10- 20mins of handling each day. They can be reared for six weeks in a large box or plastic tub with some netting over the top. The school will provide information on how to care for the chicks and may be able to help with re-homing the chickens after Ag Day if needed. It has been recommended from parents at the other schools to rear 1 or 2 extra chickens and then bring the best one per child on the day. The chickens will need to be brought to school on Ag Day in a secure cage, such as a cat cage, but one cage can be shared by 2-3 chickens. The chicks are a commercial laying breed and are sexed on hatching, so will all be hens.
At this stage a chicken competition is not offered for Group Day but the committee is looking into maybe doing this in the future.
We will need to order the chicks from the breeder in July so please indicate if you would like to be involved in the competition and how many chicks you would like to order. Chicks will cost around $6 each (price to be confirmed)
If you are unsure of what Agricultural Day is about or have any questions about raising an animal don’t hesitate to give us a call at school. Alternatively you could visit www.waikatoaandp.co.nz there is information available to download in the future with plenty of helpful hints.
Please email: office@puketaha.school.nz if you are:
- Planning to have or already have an animal.
- If you would like to know more about Agricultural Day.
- If you would like to be kept informed about Agricultural Day
- Would like to organise to get a chicken or chickens
and you will be added to an email list for all future communication about this event.
Thank you