Leading the way

Zia is putting Creamy through leading practice at our Ag farm. Creamy is a breed of beef cattle called a Square Meater.

Zia and Creamy

As purebreds and in crossbreeding operations Square Meaters are proving to be the key to the more efficient production of quality beef. Square Meaters sire calves have low birth weights (20 to 30 kgs), explosive early growth and great feed efficiency. They consistently grow into heavily muscled premium 250 to 300 kg weaners.
The Square Meaters female has a calm nature and is a highly fertile, heavy milker. Due to her compact frame and extra muscling she holds on when times are tough, and leaps ahead when feed is plentiful.

The Square Meater is an Australian breed of small, polled cattle which were developed by Rick Pisaturo of Mandalong Park near Sydney, New South Wales in the early 1990s from a base of Murray Grey genetics. Despite their smaller stature they have excellent muscling and perform well in steer and carcase competitions.

Square Meaters are usually silver or grey in colour with dark hooves and a dark skin that reduces the chance of eye cancer and sunburned udders. The breed is noted for its good temperament, early maturity and easy-care attributes, which makes them a popular breed of cattle for smaller farms.

To be registered class "A", purebred Square Meater bulls must not be less than 103 cm and not more than 113 cm at the shoulder at 12 months of age. Females must be 107 cm or less at the shoulder at 12 months of age. Mature females will weigh about 450 kg and be around 125 cm tall


Around the farm they go



Characteristics

Photo courtesy of Gleannholme Square Meaters, www.gleannholme.com.au

Square Meaters are phenotypically the same as a Murray Grey as it has come directly from this breed, so in colour it ranges from light grey and brown to average brown. The essential difference between Square Meaters and their ancestors is the height, Square meaters are shorter due to the developed decrease in leg length. Although this breed is shorter it is not a miniature breed.

A mature female will weigh around 450kg and be around 125cm tall. She will have a deep body with a good udder and produce calves at 20-30kg birth weight, with no calving difficultly, at 2 years of age. The young calves grow rapidly to achieve a live weight of 280-340 kg at 9-11 months of age. From only a few weeks of age onwards the calves have a characteristic 'rounded bum' that is noticeable when comparing animals of other breeds at the same age.

Mature bulls weigh around 800kg plus at around 130cm high, again with a deep body on short legs. Despite the shortness of leg, Square Meater bulls can easily serve larger females in commercial crossbreeding programs.

The Square Meaters Cattle Association does have a height restriction on the registering of bulls. At 12 months of age bulls cannot be less than 103cm and not more than 113cm. This regulation is aimed at providing a safeguard against animals becoming too small or regressing back to taller/slower growing characteristics.

Statistics

Photo courtesy of Kelkette Park, www.kelkettepark.com.au

Early maturing

Moderate birth weights

Quiet temperament

High milking ability

Strong muscling and superior fleshing

Optimum, even fat cover

Distribution

This breed is produced in Australia.

References (the above information was cited from the following sites)

www.squaremeaters.com.au
www.gleannholme.com.au
www.kelkettepark.com.au

Mrs McNeil our Agriculture and Primary Industries teacher shows Zia how to put the leading halter on.



Artwork takes shape

On the last day of term we made heaps of progress with our artwork on the cow.

One side of our cow represents our local area and features the Shoalhaven River and coastline and the other side is going to be about the amazing innovations that are being developed in the beef industry in Australia.

Check out the videos below to see the team in action. Our Ag farm at school has never been so busy!!!!!

Creamy checks out the action !

Our Archi team in action

Marjorie

Our Awesome Archifull Team

Marni working on our blog

Our team is made up of a rather wide variety of students. There are the  intelligent, the artistic and the just plain silly. Never the less, everything runs like clockwork and all goes to plan. We have all extremely enjoyed Archibull and hope to do it again next year.

Ashlee: Bubbly year 10 student who can't stop laughing. "I am artistic and the leader of the art team! I enjoy Doctor Who and am a huge fan of Anime. I think that agriculture is fun and a vital industry for the future."







Ashlee bringing Sweetie to life

 Stuart: Year 10 Student who loves music, drama and chocolate. "I am one of the bloggers and I am fascinated with the agricultural industry and the impacts it has on modern life. I know a dairy farmer who lives on the South Coast. Although I may not be the best artist I like to give everything a go!"

Stuart

Natasha: Fairly sure she is the oldest student in the group. "I am generally a quiet person but I always love to have fun. I like to garden and sing in the shower."





Natasha

Marni: An enthusiastic, energetic and outgoing year 10 student."I have always been interested in farming and science so I thought that Archibull would be a great opportunity to gain skills and have fun along the way whilst learning about my interests. I help out with the blog and where ever I am needed."

Marni

Deborah: Reluctant to be a part of the team but she has found that she loves agriculture.
"I take my time with everything I do as I have a high attention to detail. I enjoy art, talking and all types of animals (except spiders)."

Deborah

Olivia: Yr. 8, very friendly and a nerd who cares about others, even to those who are mean to me. "I love music and art but mostly I love working on the school farm. I am one of the video people. I am very energetic but I often go crazy. When I laugh hard or do exercise I go as red as a capsicum. My dream is to be a vet."

Olivia



 Marjorie: One of the youngest in the group. "I love drawing, art and can't wait to do Agriculture next year. I am a really friendly person and I try my hardest in all I do!"

Marjorie fat scoring Sweetie Meaty Pie

 Victoria: A loud talkative person who loves baby animals. "My favourite colour is purple and I love photography and reading. I find that agriculture is an incredibly interesting subject not only to study at school but just for fun. When I grow up I would love to work with animals."

Victoria

Sophia: She is a relatively quiet year 8 student that has two dogs and two lizards. "I enjoy playing my guitar in any style that I can get my hands on. I get annoyed when people cannot pronounce my name properly. I love agriculture!"

Victoria, Marjorie and Sophia learning about meat quality with Steph

Sophia



 Tabetha: The quietest member of the group who loves to read. "I have enjoyed my time so far participating in the Archibull project and I hope we all go well. I like playing practical jokes on my family."

Tabetha





Alissa, Ashlee and Narelle

These girls have dropped in and out for different sessions along the way.

Mrs McNeil and Ms Hargraves



Mrs McNeil teaches Science, Agriculture and Primary Industries.


Ms Hargraves is the Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator and teaches Science.
 "The students have been having so much fun and are so engaged in the learning process. The Archibull Prize has been a fantastic opportunity for these students to develop their confidence, skills and knowledge and understanding about the role of agriculture in feeding a hungry world. They have become a real team and established some excellent networks within their local community. Along the way their creativity and critical thinking has blossomed and their appreciation of the contributions that farmers make to their world has grown."

Archie and Us at Shoalhaven High School

"When I was first asked to be part of this project by our Team Leader Deb Hargraves I was wondering how on earth I was going to fit this into an ever increasing work load that is part of being a school teacher and a school student. However we have managed the time line really well and I have thoroughly benefited from the quality of resources sent to our school. This project has provided me with a number of new and interesting internet links to show not only the students undertaking the Archibull prize competition but to use for all of my other agricultural classes. We have also been able to develop some excellent industry contacts and the visit from our Young Farming Champion was FANTASTIC! The students have been so inspired by these people and this has opened up a new and exciting path of conversation and education in our school.

Janelle and Henry the two farmers from the Shoalhaven Beef Association were wonderful to meet and the student’s really enjoyed learning about their farms, their ideas and the support and encouragement from them was awesome. Janelle has since given us another industry contact to help us in our goal to show some cattle through the school.

The students that volunteered for this project have blown Deb and I away with their enthusiasm and commitment to the project, giving up all their lunch times since the project started and Tuesday afternoon sport. Some of the student outcomes from this project include; team building skills, increased self-confidence, cooperation, ability to meet deadlines, commitment, raising the profile of the school within the community. "

Thankyou Maree McNeil

Feeding and Clothing our community

We are now at the stage where we have to work out some population statistics for our local area. We are going to use the Australian Bureau of Statistics as our source of information as we feel that it will be a reliable source. The Shoalhaven is a huge area made up of many smaller sized settlements and the main towns of Nowra, Bomaderry and Ulladulla. In 2012 our local population is 98,076 people and each year that number continues to grow.

So now for some calculations..............

Using the information provided in the Archibull Program Manual on page 24 we calculated the kilograms consumed per person per day for each of the commodity groups by dividing the Sydney totals by the population for Sydney which is 4 600 000 people. We then used the value per person and multiplied it by our local population of 98 076 people. We also calculated how much produce or animals that equated to.

We also realised that there were commodity groups such as fish and shellfish and synthetic fabrics that were also consumed by our community but we don't have any statistics for these groups so we might try and find out what we can.

There is also the question of how much food do we waste? As a country we waste around 4 million tonnes of food a year which is a terrible amount especially when 1.2 million Australians do not have access to a safe and nutritious food supply!

What it takes to feed and clothe the Shoalhaven community in one day

Commodity group	Kilograms consumed per day in Sydney	Kilograms per person per day	Kilograms for Shoalhaven population	Produce/animals required	Produce/animals required per person	Animals needed Shoalhaven
Pork	303,726 kg	0.0474571875 kg	4654.4 Kg	10,847 pigs	0.00169484375	166.2 pigs
Horticulture	2,090,795 kg	0.3266867188 kg	32040.1 Kg	8,664,032 fruit & vegetables	1.353755	132770.8 fruit &veges
Poultry	1,295,562 kg	0.2024315625 kg	19853.7 Kg	1,423,832 hens	0.22247375	21819.3 hens
Meat and Livestock	577,205 kg	0.09018828125 kg	8845.3 Kg	9014 beasts	0.0014084375	138.1 beasts
Dairy	1,817,315 kg	0.2839554688 kg	27849.2 Kg	390,146 dairy cows	0.0609603125	5978.7 dairy cows
Grains	693,151 kg	0.1083048438 kg	10622.1 kg	31543 loaves of bread	0.0049	483.4 loaves
Bees (honey)	12603kg	0.002739782kg	268.7	882,191,781 bees	137.8424658	13519037.7 bees
Rice	163,836 kilograms	0.025599375 kg	2510.7	8,191,780,822 grains of rice	1279.965753	125533921.2 grains of rice
Cotton	1,854 bales = 420,858 kilograms	0.0657590625 kg	6449.4	30,000 hectares of land	0.0046875	459.7 ha

And.........

we have come up with a clever way of representing that on our cow....

Each of the food groups and the amounts required for the Shoalhaven's daily consumption



The team putting the numbers on




Speaking of Sweetie Meaty Pie................... our last day of term was filled with lots of creativity as we began painting after weeks of planning. Check out the pictures and videos below........

Sweetie Meaty Pie comes to life as Shoalhaven High Archibull team creates artwork

We are representing the Shoalhaven region on one side of our cow - you can see the coastline and Shoalhaven River and the farming land of the Shoalhaven floodplain



Sweetie has an arrow on her head and the word INNOVATION across her horns to represent how Agriculture is moving forwards



constructing our farmer