Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE

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Local farm machinery retailer helps out students

The Centre for Agriculture, Irrigation and Land Management at GOTAFE has begun sowing canola crops at the William Orr Campus with the help of local farm machinery retailer Haeusler's in Shepparton.

Students from the Advanced Diploma of Agriculture and the GOTAFE Farm Skills Centre's Safe Tractor Operation short course were given a hands on demonstration of the new John Deere 7920 tractor fitted with Leica GPS and a 6m Vaderstad air seeder.

Haeusler's Shepparton kindly provided the Centre with state of the art equipment to sow 16 ha of canola on the south end of the farm. A sales consultant from Haeuslers, Colin Downs, ran the students and staff through setup and operation whilst Vaderstad international machinery consultant Reg Wilkinson from Scotland was also present to talk staff and student through the features of the machinery.

The Centre for Agriculture, Irrigation and Land Management (CAILM) is planning to seed the entire William Orr Campus property in the coming weeks in order to re-establish the farm as a relevant industry based learning centre enabling students to gain the best possible hands on learning experience. In order to do this CAILM is hoping to further engage with machinery dealerships in order to provide the students exposure to the latest technology and equipment.

Student Lochie Woods said "I was amazed by the simplicity of operation of the tractor GPS and air seeder and thought it was a great experience. Having access to state of the art machinery adds a new dimension to training."

For further information on agriculture training please phone 1300 GOTAFE (1300 468 233) or visit www.gotafe.vic.edu.au