July field day, kindly sponsored by Redpath Greenhouses
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
The attendees at the field day held by the P.C.R.A.A. in late July found the day interesting.
We visited two farms, the Horking’s, where they milk about 300 cows and use an automatic calf feeder to feed their calves, and the much larger Coomboona Holsteins dairy, which is milking around 1200 cows.
On the first farm the calves are cared for by family members, on the second, by paid staff. The differing styles of housing and approach of the calf raisers stimulated some interesting questions and attendees were shown two quite different styles of rearing.
Lunch was put on by the Sheridan CWA ladies and was delicious. It was generously sponsored by Redpath Greenhouses. The Horkings have a Redpath Greenhouse as their calf barn and are very happy with it; Wayne and Brian from Redpath were on site to give a brief talk and to answer any queries about the shelter.
During lunch, Dr. Rob Bonanno, from the Shepparton Vet Clinic, gave a very interesting talk, which continued on after lunch at the second farm.
The P.C.R.A.A. is very grateful to the two farms for hosting us, Redpath Greenhouses for their generous sponsorship of lunch, Dr. Bonanno for his enlightening talk and the CWA ladies for their wonderful cooking.
Field day attendees keen to learn