SECONDARY students had the opportunity to learn about the pork industry at the New England Girls’ School’s inaugural Pig Production Education Day last Thursday.
The event, led by NEGS agricultural teacher Mark Fisher, included more than 100 students from seven high schools at Glen Innes, Armidale and Walcha.
Workshops included pig husbandry, breeding and feeding, pig handling and preparation for showing, pig assessment, pork marketing, butchering, junior judging and a discussion on feral pig issues and control.
Speakers included stud breeders Richard and Heather Cole, Forbes, Northern Tablelands Local Land Services biosecurity officer Peter Frizell, Ashley Norval from Australian Pork Limited, Canberra, Jayce Morgan from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and South Australian producer Graeme Rae.
“The main thing is ... for the pig industry to have positive exposure,” Mr Fisher said.
“There’s been a lot of negative exposure in the past with animal welfare issues … but it really is a great industry.
NEGS is one of only a few schools in the region to keep pigs, with two Berkshire sows at the school farm.
Pigs are a big part of agricultural production system at NEGS.
“We try to use all of our dining hall food waste, obviously with the exception of meat products or food that’s in contact with meat,” Mr Fisher said.
“That’s a fantastic feed source mixed with a complete ration.
“We use them in the girls’ vegetable garden as well so when the vegetables are finished we use sheep panels and wire them up, and the idea is the pigs go in and essential they’re a plough at the front and a fertiliser spreader at the back and they save the students a lot of work.
“It adds to the sustainability of the while school with the interaction between subsystems in terms of the dining hall, vegetables and the pig enterprise.”
Mr Fisher hopes to encourage more schools to take on pigs, with NEGS providing weaners to other regional schools.
“We’ve already forward sold the next two litters so they’re very popular. They really are an easy care animal.”