Pupils are farmers for the day at Quoybrae
A GROUP of 96 primary school pupils from Caithness became farmers for a day when they deserted their classrooms for Aberdeen & Northern Marts’ Caithness Livestock Centre at Quoybrae last week.
They tried their hand at a range of operations, learning about how food gets from field to plate at the event run by the Royal Highland Education Trust’s Highland Countryside Initiative.
The pupils from Hillhead, Pulteneytown Academy, Pennyland and Reay started by taking part in a mock auction of sheep in the main ring at Quoybrae.
They then met Highland Rosie, a life-size fibreglass cow, and were given a chance to try their hand at milking and making butter. They then saw cattle and sheep in the flesh and were given a quick chat about beef and lamb production.
They also found out about cereals production on the farm and were given a rundown of the common foods made from barley, wheat and oats. During the session, they had a chance to grind their own flour.
The pupils also found out about the requirements of plants, made paper pots from recycled newspaper, sowed seeds, and found out about food miles, seasonality and the range of vegetable and fruit grown in Scotland.
Maggie Wormald, who co-ordinated the initiative, said the day, sponsored by the Scottish Government, had been a great success.
She said: "Feedback from teachers has been positive and we would like to thank the volunteers we had from the Caithness farming community for running the activities and providing resources and Quoybrae Livestock Centre for providing the facilities."
Anyone wishing to get involved in a similar outing should contact Ms Wormald on highland@rhet.org