Agriculture Students Visit Quirindi, 2007

 For the 24^th successive year, Galston High School Year 9 Agriculture students visited the far North West NSW town of Quirindi. Thirty students accompanied by  teachers and Galston Rotary Club members embarked on the annual excursion to gain first-hand experience of large scale farming activities in this agriculturally rich area of the State. The event is organized by the Rotary Club of Galston in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Quirindi.

Based at the Quirindi showground for two nights, visits were made to surrounding properties in the area. Itineraries included the stunning Arrowfield horse stud, cattle dog demonstrations, and some enormous farming properties growing lucerne, kikuyu and saltbush seed, beef, and sheep. The impact of water restrictions, types of irrigation for different crops, and new coal mining activities was carefully explained. They met the original old timers whose characters and history moulded both the town and country life, and gave the students experiences and stories they could never forget.

Due to heavy rain in parts making bus access to some properties impossible, a visit to the Quirindi Rural Heritage Village was organized – a rural museum packed with culture and machinery reflecting the history of the area.

Thirty Galston High School Year 9 Agriculture students departed for Quirindi by bus (captained by Ross Burleigh) at 8am on Tuesday 4th December, accompanied by teachers Paul Udy, Chris Limbers, Wendy Pike and Karleen Arnold. Brian Dodd, Bob Spence & Terry Mullen travelled ahead by car. This was the 24th consecutive excursion organized by Galston and Quirindi Rotary Clubs, and designed to give the students first-hand experience of some large scale and unique farming activities in this very fertile agricultural area.

The first stop on the way was the prestigious Arrowfield horse stud, where students were able to get up close to some of the mares despite current equine influenza restrictions – they were allowed nowhere near the multi-million dollar stallions!

Following a dip in the local pool, students stayed at the Quirindi Showground, with a BBQ dinner being prepared on the first night by Quirindi RC, including the well known Charlie Eccles. We were joined by past well known farm host Mick Makeham and son Andrew, together with Tamworth Rotarian (ex-Galston RC) George Cromie.

On Wednesday, sheep dog demonstrations were given at the property of Minnie Hunt.

Robert & Merril Cox hosted the visit to their large lucerne growing property, and gave demonstrations of hay and silage harvesting and baling equipment.  When the air-tight green plastic wrapping is opened on one of those large round fermenting bales, you’d swear you were in the brewing room of a local Rotarian!

Killara was another large property co-owned by Elders, and scientifically prepares (feeds) cattle in different ways for markets such as Woolworths, and Japanese export. The Japanese export stock is fed in such a manner as to produce a high degree of marbling in the meat. The property capacity is 20,000 head of cattle, and was holding 5,000 head at the time of our visit.

The Eyekamp family kikuyu business is quite unique in being the only kikuyu seed production business in the Southern Hemisphere, with product being sold nationally and exported around the world. The family have developed their own techniques and equipment for producing, harvesting and separating the small seed. Also grown on the property is Old Mans Saltbush, which not only concentrates vital minerals such as selenium for cattle feed supplementation, but the plant leaves have proven an effective remedy for Newcastle Itch in horses.

Following a further dip in the local pool, the students returned to the showground with Gaslton RC cooking the evening BBQ meal. Happy Birthday was sung to Mick Makeham, celebrating his 89th.

On Thursday the 40,000 acre Windy Sheep Station was visited. This magnificent property once housed up to 48 shearers, with the main shearing shed and covered holding buildings constructed from timber from the property around 1890. Aside from sheep, various crops are also grown on the property including mustard seed currently.

Due to heavy rainfall in some parts and the bus being unable to access one of the cattle properties, an alternate arrangement was made to visit the Quirindi Rural Heritage Museum on the last day before the trip home. The museum was kindly opened up especially for the school by some of the volunteers, and proved to be a very interesting exhibit of early items and farm machinery from the area.