Students enjoy linking the theory they learn at college to seasonal practical tasks. The level three course they are studying provides a balance of practical and theory activities covering a range of agricultural related subjects.

They have the opportunity to undertake visits to farms and other specialist land based operations. The use of guest speakers and employer visits are a popular part of the course including the development of skills to improve career prospects. The course also provides a wide variety of assessment methods which match the subject and meet individual student needs.

In addition there are opportunities to represent the College by competing in both national and regional competitions. This month their diary illustrates how they are able to take more responsibility for their progress and achieve excellent results in all aspects of their course.

Ben Roberts

With the weather getting better, we have turned our heads to silaging and maize drilling on the College farm. The first cut of silage was finished before the start of May. The students picked up 40 hectares of heavy crop grass with the farms own Lely forage wagon.

All the students had a role to play in the two day operation, completing everything from mowing, tedding, raking, driving the wagon, buck-raking and preparing and sheeting the pit. To ensure the harvest is completed as quickly as possible, contractors filled a separate pit with the additional over 80 hectares of grass.

Maize drilling has also filled our busy schedule. All the ground was prepared during the young farmers event, ‘24 hours cultivations’ where we raised over £3,000 for charity. To increase growth and productivity all the maize was drilled underneath plastic and that works well on Rodway Farm.

Recently on the farm we held an open day for local farmers and college students to view different grassland equipment ran by Valtra dealers Curtis’. There was also the chance to see a Claas forager and have a talk with the local dealers Hamblys. We find these industry days really interesting and they help us understand how the machines work.

Adrian Netherway

At college this month all of the first cut of grass have been successfully picked up and clamped. During practical’s we have been docking and using a pour on preventative for fly strike with the College’s sheep as the weather has started to warm up, this will protect them against blow fly up to shearing time which I am really looking forward to.

During the weekends at home and work experience we have been preparing cattle for turning out to grass due to the field conditions improving and sugar levels are increasing.

In the upcoming month at College we have a trip organised to go Grassland UK event at the Bath and West show ground which is going to fit in very well to our future grass land assignments.

Annabella Cornish

Michelle and I are coming to the end of our Extended Diploma with only a few assignments left to complete. One of my final assignments to hand in which I am working on now is focussing on beef rearing systems and gross margins.

The College farm have recently invested in a ‘beef from the dairy herd’ system, rearing mainly Friesian bull calves and all British blue offspring. Within the assignment we have analysed the expenditure and profits of the systems and compared it to two other systems including intensive cereal beef and a similar system of 18-20 month forage beef.

Also within the assignment we have used the weights gathered from the beef animals at Rodway which shows a varied growth rate throughout the group with a top end of 1.4kg/day live weight gain and one of the lower results being 0.9kg/day live weight gain over a weighing period of almost seven months. The first year students will carry on weighing the animals until their sale at around 19 months of age and the data will be used to analyse why animals grow at different rates.

Michelle Parish

This month has been mainly focused on the '24hr grass to maize' event organised by Rodway Young Farmers club there has also been other field work to complete to ensure the excellent weather conditions are made maximum use of.

The main focus for my group this month is to ensure we complete all assignments to the best of our ability. My course, the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Agriculture, is coming to an end and we are all looking to progress onto the next stage of our career most are going onto future jobs alongside higher education courses at Bridgwater College.

This is an excellent opportunity for us to progress because we already know we will have an excellent experience and I am really excited about coming back on the university level programme. To find out more please come to see us at the Devon County Show at the Bridgwater College Cannington Centre stand.

This article is part of a monthly column written by Agriculture students at Bridgwater College. You can read the other articles in this series here: January, February, March, April, June