Students get up close with sheep husbandry practices


Analysing sheep faeces for worm eggs

Exploring the history of technology in the sheep industry at the Wool Museum

This fieldwork is designed for secondary students to:

»	increase their knowledge of the sheep industry and its contributions to their lives;
»	understand the range of science and technology applied in the sheep industry;
»	learn about careers in the sheep industry.

Background notes
The Victorian wool industry contributes $1 billion to Australia's export economy. Most of Victoria's wool is shipped to China and Italy where the majority of cleaning and processing occurs. Uses of wool include clothing (including specialist clothing), carpet, insulation, bedding and fashion accessories. The value of sheep meat (lamb & mutton) production in Victoria was about $700 million in 2003/2004 and accounts for 65% of all sheep meat production in Australia. There are approximately 13,000 farmers farming sheep for meat and / or wool in Victoria.

Part A: How is the sheep industry relevant to my community?
With students working in small groups:

1

Ask students to identify and describe the relevance to them of the Victorian sheep industry. Students can develop a Y chart on a big piece of paper to record their ideas, using three headings: social (ie people), economic and environmental. Some examples are provided here for teachers to use as prompts.

Research sheep farming. Students can continue to work in groups to research their questions and others.

Some questions to consider:
* What is the gestation period for sheep?
* At what age would you wean (separate lambs from ewes) if you were a farmer?
* When and how often do farmers need to drench their sheep?
* What might change if there is a drought?

Share the information and findings from the research to create a pictorial calendar of sheep farming indicating farming practices and activities for 12 months or longer. Students will need to make decisions as farmers to decide how they will manage their sheep and when different activities will be done.

For example, when do the following occur? Add other activities to this list.
Shearing - once a year
Crutching - 6 months after shearing
Joining ewe and ram
Lambing
Weaning
Drenching