Ag students from Ashburton College have been learning about food production and the environment on an educational field trip.
Led by the college’s head of agriculture Jackie Driver, about 20 year 11 agriculture students visited farms in Mid Canterbury.
They learned from environmental award winners Phill and Jos Everest, consultant Harry Millar and Environment Canterbury councillor Ian Mackenzie.
Angela Cushnie, of the Mid Canterbury Catchment Collective and Kanuka Mid Canterbury Regeneration Trust, said the field trip was about biodiversity and ecology.
‘‘Together we arranged an informative and interactive field trip looking at food production, soil health, water quality and quantity and biodiversity,’’ Cushnie said.
They visited two family farm operations. They were the environmental award winning Flemington Farm with the Everests, and the Mackenize farm at Eiffelton with Ian, Di and Hamish Mackenzie who introduced the students to their mudfish habitat.
‘‘From there we visited the Windermere Drain where a long-term restoration project has been led by the community in terms of stream enhancement, targeted stream augmentation, riparian planting – all with ongoing maintenance, monitoring and measuring,’’ Cushnie said.
‘‘Harry Millar was on hand to show the students how to use a stream health monitoring assessment kit, and how to measure the invertebrates, etcetera, that were found in this healthy waterway.’’
Cushnie was impressed by how well the students engaged and understood the wide range of topics.
She hoped the trip, which was the first of its kind, could lead to further student learning opportunities.
“They’re assessed on what their understanding is of the production on the environment. There are components of it that are on farm and components in waterways, it is complex.
“I was really impressed with some of the questions that we got and I was really impressed by the level of engagement,” she said.
“I love seeing education happening in our community.”
