CattleProj

School Science Lessons
Preparing for a cattle project
Updated: 2008-03-29
Please send comments to: J.Elfick@uq.edu.au
See also: Interesting websites

Table of contents
Preface
1. Introduction to cattle project
2. Cattle pastures
3. Choosing pasture lands for cattle
4. Clearing land for cattle pasture
5. Fencing for cattle
6. Making gates
7. Pasture grasses for cattle
8. Cattle Planting pasture grasses
9. Legumes for cattle pasture
10. Building yards for cattle
11. Care of growing pastures for cattle
12. Cattle yards
13. Building cattle yards
6.9.20.0 Understanding the records

Preface
It will take about a year for the school to be ready to start keeping cattle. That is why this teaching unit is printed separately from the cattle project. The worst disease of cattle may be malnutrition. The cattle do not have enough to eat. So before you can have any cattle at the school, you must grow some special food plants for them. Also cattle are big strong animals and will walk away unless you first build a fence to keep them on your land. This booklet explains all the things you must do to be ready for the cattle. The work you have to do should be done in this order:
1. Carefully choose the area where you will keep the cattle and grow the food plants for them. Read the notes about this.
2. Clear this area of all bushy growth. Do not cut down all the trees, but read the notes about this. When the land is cleared then you can apply to the agriculture department for some money for fencing and seeds. This money is called a subsidy.
3. Then build a fence around this area. The fence must be built before you sow the food plants to keep out pigs, horses or other cattle that will eat the plants you have grown. Read the notes about fencing and do everything properly.
4. Plant the pasture food plants. This must be done as soon as possible so the plants will have many months to grow big and strong before the cattle start to eat them.
5. Then build other fences to divide the area into four different paddocks.
6. Then start to build the yards, gates and the crush. It does not matter if this work is not finished until the end of the year.
It will take about a year for the school to be ready to start keeping cattle. That is why this teaching unit is printed separately from the cattle project. The worst disease of cattle in the Solomon Islands is malnutrition - that is, the cattle do not have enough to eat. So before you can have any cattle at the school, you must grow some special food plants for them. Also cattle are big strong animals and will walk away unless you first build a fence to keep them on your land.
1. Carefully choose the area where you will keep the cattle and grow the food plants for them.
2. Clear this area of all bushy growth. Do not cut down all the trees, but read the notes about this. When the land is cleared then you can apply to the agriculture department for some money for fencing and seeds. This money is called a subsidy.
3. Then build a fence around this area. The fence must be built before you sow the food plants to keep out pigs, horses or other cattle that will eat the plants you have grown. Read the notes about fencing and do everything properly.
4. Plant the pasture food plants. This must be done as soon as possible so the plants will have many months to grow big and strong before the cattle start to eat them.
5. Then build other fences to divide the area into four different paddocks.
6. Then start to build the yards, gates and the crush. It doesn't matter if this work is not finished until the end of the year.
Try to begin this work as soon as you can in the year, then you will be ready to buy some cattle the next year and start the project.

1. Introduction to cattle project
Many people wish to keep cattle and this project will show the students how it must be done. Your first work is to talk to the students about keeping cattle.
1. Many people want to keep cattle near their villages. Cattle can be sold for money. However, cattle projects are not as profitable as chicken projects.
2. Cattle are big animals and they are very strong. So make strong fences to keep them on the school land.
3. Cattle need much food to eat. The native grasses are not good enough for them, so grow special food plants for them. There is a lot to learn about how to do this. The food plants are called pastures.
4. Make strong yards for the cattle so you can handle them safely. The yards must have a race and bails that will hold the cattle still while you do things to them.

2. Cattle pastures
1. The pasture plants need space and light to grow. This means that the land that is to be used for pastures must be first cleared. Clearing means cutting down all the big weeds and bushes from the land.
2. However, cattle must have some shade from the hot sun. Do not cut down all the trees in this place. Leave some trees that will give some shade for the animals.
3. The cattle need to have much food that will give them energy to walk about. Grasses are plants that give cattle much energy. However, these must be special grasses that will grow fast. Plant these grasses in the pastures.
4. However, cattle also need to have much food that contains protein. This is a kind of food that is found in fish and meat. It makes the body of the cattle grow well. Food plants that contain protein are called legumes so grow some legumes in the pastures.
5. Stop other animals like pigs and horses from eating the cattle pasture plants. Put fences around the pasture paddocks. These fences will keep the pasture plants safe for the cattle.

3. Choosing pasture lands for cattle
Know how to choose some good land for pastures. These are the important things they must know:
1. First there must be some clean water in the pasture area. It is good if a small creek or stream goes through this place. However, there must be some water in each paddock. Each beef animal will drink about 35 litres of water a day, but in hot weather they may drink much more than this.
2. The pastures must be fairly close to the school so that it will be easy for the students to walk to that place.
3. The pastures must be made where there is good soil. You can tell if the soil is good by looking at the trees in that place. If the soil is good the coconuts and other trees will be big and green.
4. Do not choose a place where the soil is very wet. The cattle are heavy animals and their feet will make holes in wet ground and this will kill the pasture plants growing there. Try to choose good dry land for the pastures, but of course there will be some wetland close to the creeks.
5. Decide how much land you will need. Each animal needs about 1/4 ha of good pasture to feed on. So if you plan to keep 2 animals you will need at least ½ ha in each paddock. It would be better to have paddocks that are one hectare (1 ha) (2.79 acres) in size. When cattle are left in a paddock, they will soon eat the pasture plants down. Then you must take them out of that paddock and let the plants grow up again. So you need 4 paddocks. Then there will always be a new paddock with fresh pasture to put the cattle in. So you need 4 X 2 ha paddocks.
How to choose an area for pastures.
1. it must be about 8 ha in size.
2. it must be divided into 4 paddocks.
3. there must be water available in each paddock.
4. the land must be good soil.
5. the land must be fairly dry. Take the students outside for this lesson.
Ask the tudents help you to choose good land for the pastures. Students help you to put marks on this area.

4. Clearing land for cattle pasture
1. When you have chosen a good place for the pastures, the next thing is to clear this land. To do this you will need axes and bush knives. First ask what is to be done. Then they can go outside and help you to clear the land.
They must first look at the land and decide which trees will be left. It is best to leave 10 or 12 trees that are growing together in one place. The cattle will camp in these places under the shade of the trees.
2. Then they must cut out all vines and bushes and weeds like Paddy's Lucerne. Big bushes should be cut down with an axe, but a bush knives can cut down most smaller weeds and bushes.
3. If there are many weeds growing like needle bush, these can be killed by slashing or by spraying them with a weed killing chemical 245T.
4. If there are too many trees growing thickly in some places, some must be cut down. After cutting down any hardwood trees, these should be put together in one place so that the timber can be used later to make the fence posts and posts for the yards. Teach this lesson in the school.
2. How the clearing will be done.
3. Make sure they know how to use weed killing sprays carefully so they do not become poisoned. It is hard to know how many lessons you will need to get the clearing done. The students can probably do a little clearing each day because it is hard work. Subsidies
When the clearing has been done, you can write to the agriculture department and ask for a seed and fencing subsidy. The subsidy is money given to help you to buy the fencing wire and seeds that you will need to make the pasture paddocks. The students must know how this is done, so you must what to write in the letter. The letter must say these things:
1. The - - - - - - - - school wishes to keep some cattle.
2. A pasture area of 4 ha has been chosen for a pasture.
3. This area has now been cleared and is ready for fencing and sowing seeds.
4. The school now makes a claim for a subsidy to cover the cost of fencing this area into 4 paddocks and sowing the area to pasture grasses and legumes.
Try to what the subsidy means. It is money from the Government to help you make the pastures.
2. The Government only gives this money after you have done the work of clearing.
3. A man from the agriculture department will look at the land to see that the work has been done in clearing the land.
4. Students copy your letter to the district agricultural officer so they will know how to apply for a subsidy on their own land later.

5. Fencing for cattle
It is best to make the fences before you start to plant the pasture grasses and legumes. Then the plants will be protected from other animals that may come to eat them. The fence will have 3 kinds of posts:
1. The ordinary fence posts or "running posts". These must be 210 cm long and 20 cm thick. You will need 104 of these posts. They are buried 1 metre in the ground.
2. The strainer posts must be stronger. They must be 3 m long. They are put at each corner and on both sides of a gate. These posts take the strain of the fence without falling over. They must be buried 1 metre in the ground. You will need 14 of these posts.
3. The stay posts are also 3 metres long but may be thinner than the strainer posts. They are used to help the strainer posts stay straight in the ground. You will need 25 of them. Stay rails are put between the strainer posts and the stay posts. You will need 25 of these too. The picture shows how all these ports are put in the ground. Holes must be bored through each post to put the wires through them. The fence will have 4 strands of barbed wire running through the posts. You will need to have 9 rolls of barbed wire. The next picture shows all the posts that will be needed but the posts for the yards are not shown here.
4. The work of cutting fence posts will be very hard work.
2. Explain: running posts, strainer posts, stay rails, stay posts.
3. Make a drawing on the blackboard for students to copy into their books. The drawing should look like this: It will take a long time for the fences to be made. When you are putting the wires through the posts, you should ask someone from the agriculture department to show you how to use a wire strainer to make the wires tight. The students should learn how to use the strainer. It is best if you build one panel of fencing at a time, put the wires through it and strain it up tightly. Then start on another panel or side of one paddock. When you have done this 3 times, the students should know how to do it themselves.

6. Cattle Making gates
Gates are needed so the cattle can go in and out of each paddock. Gates must be placed in the right position. It is good if some of them can be close together so the cattle can be moved easily from one paddock to another.
Gates must be strong. Strainer posts must be put on both sides of a gate, so it is best to place gates in the corners of paddocks: then you can use strainer posts that are already there. There must be one gate somewhere on the outside fence so the cattle can get inside the paddocks. Two kinds of gates can be used.
1. Gates made from sawn timber bolted together and fixed to hinges.
2. Gates can be made from strands of barbed wire tied together. Look at the pictures of gates. Students make some gates. It is good if they make some of each kind.

7. Pasture grasses for cattle
1. The grasses are plants with long thin leaves and small green flowers.
2. Native grasses are not good enough for the cattle because: they grow too slowly they are not as soft and good to eat. They are not thick enough and do not give the cattle enough to eat.
3. The best grasses to use are the imported grasses. Some best ones to use are:
1. Para Grass
Para grass is good because it is soft to eat and tastes good to animals. However, it will not stand heavy feeding, so farmers must let it grow well before putting animals onto it. There are tufts of fine hairs at the bottom of each leaf and on the leaf sheaths. You can see this if you look at the picture. The seed heads of para grass have two rows of rounded flowers. The picture shows what they are like. Para grass can be planted by sowing the seeds, or by cutting the stems into little pieces and burying these in the soil.
2. Batiki Blue Grass
Batiki blue grass grows very well in some tropical areas. Recognizing this grass is easy. The seed heads are long and narrow and brownish and fine hairs grow from the flowers. Also there is a group of long hairs that grow from the base of each leaf. Look at the picture and you will see this. An important fact about this grass is that it grows well in shade, so it will grow under trees. This grass can be grown from cuttings of the stems that grow over the soil or from seed.
3. Koronivia grass
This is a very strong growing grass. The leaves have a rough feeling and the cattle do not like to eat it as much as some other grasses. However, Koronivia grass is useful and makes much feed. This grass grows into a thick mat on the ground, and the stems make roots wherever they touch the soil. This grass grows well on coral soils. The leaves of Koronivia grass have sharp tips and this is one way of telling it.
Which grass will you choose? It is best to ask the agricultural officer which is the best grass to grow. Koronivia grass is a good one to grow if the soil has coral in it. If the soil is very good, para grass would be the best to grow. How will it be sown? Many good grasses are already growing along the sides of roads or in paddocks. If you cannot find a lot of a good grass, you can dig up the plants, cut them into pieces with a bush knife and then plant the pieces of cut stems in the soil of your pasture paddocks. It is best to plant the grasses in long lines as you see in the drawing on the cover of this book. If no grass plants are growing near the school, then you must sow seeds of these grasses. cut the plants on the soil surface and make the soil bare. Then sow the seeds along these lines and cover them.
Get some grass plants and take them into the classroom. Try to get the whole plants with roots and flowers. Students first learn about the parts of a grass plant.
1. Let students see that there are two parts to a grass leaf - the long leaf blade and the sheath wrapped around the stem. Look at the picture.
2. Try to get some samples of para grass, Batiki blue and Koronivia grass. Show students how to recognize these grasses. Students make some drawings of good grasses or make pressed specimens in their books.
2. Students write the names of some good pasture grasses in their books.

8. Cattle Planting pasture grasses
Ask the agriculture officer to show you how to do the planting of grasses. Then have the students help you to plant the grasses or sow the seeds. They can probably do a small area each day, so it will take several lessons to get this work done.
Students sow grass seeds or plant pieces of stems.

9. Legumes for cattle pasture
1. Why legumes are grown in a cattle pasture.
2. What legumes look like
3. Some important pasture legumes.
4. How legumes are planted. These notes will tell you about these things. Why have pasture legumes? Cattle need to have two kinds of food:
1. Energy foods
The grasses make the energy food for the cattle. They need to have much this food.
2. Protein foods
Cattle must have some foods that are rich in substances called proteins. These proteins are needed because they make the meat of the animals. Legumes are plants that have much protein in them. This is why there must be some legumes growing in the cattle pastures. What are legumes? Legumes are plants that are like this:
1. Their leaves are flat and rounded and are formed in groups of three leafiest. Look at the pictures.
2. Their flowers are usually coloured red, or yellow or purple and are shaped like pea and bean flowers.
3. Many small white lumps are growing on their roots. These lumps are called nodules. These nodules store nitrogen from the air and this nitrogen is turned into protein. The nodules make the protein for the legume plants.
4. Legumes have fruit that is like a small bean. These fruits are called pods and the seeds are inside them.
Pasture legumes.
Some of the best pasture legumes are these:
1. Centro: The proper name for this plant is Centrosema but it is usually just called Centro. This is a climbing plant that keeps growing each year. It makes large flowers and has dark brown pods and seeds. The flowers vary in colour - some are white and some are purple, but they are large flowers. The seeds of Centro are hard and they take a long time to germinate and grow. The plants need to have a long time to grow before they are strong, so sowing must be done as early as possible.
2. Puero: The proper name for this plant is Pueraria but it is usually just called Puero. Puero is a plant that has large rounded leaves. Look at the picture. It will grow quite well in shade so is a good legume to grow if there are many trees. Puero grows well in many parts of the Solomon Islands.
3. Siratro: This legume grows well in some parts of the Solomon Islands. It grows year after year and makes a thick mat over the ground. The flowers are dark red but turn into a dark purple colour as they grow old. The leaves of Siratro have an unusual shape with a small lobe formed on one side of each leaflet. Look at the pictures. Siratro makes long thin green fruit pods.
How legumes ore sown
1. Get some inoculum from the agriculture department for the seeds. This is something you must put on the seeds before you sow them. This inoculum lets the legumes form the nodules on their roots. The plants will not grow will without this inoculum. Tell the agriculture department what seeds you want to sow and then for some inoculum. When you get the inoculum you must mix it with half a bucket of water. Then use this water to why yards are needed.
2. Explain the meaning of race, bails and holding yard. A holding yard is just a place where you can put cattle while you are waiting to do something with them. This yard just holds them for us.

10. Building yards for cattle
It will take a long time to build the yards, because they must be very strong and the timber must be joined strongly. You should try to borrow a chain saw for this work so you can easily cut the posts and rails. You will also need to have:
1. An augur to bore holes in the posts so you can put bolts through them.
2. A saw to cut places in the posts where the rails will be bolted on.
3. About 16 dozen bolts and nuts. The bolts must be longer than the width of your posts so they will
4. A chain saw for cutting posts and rails.
Choosing a place for the yards
To be useful the stock yards must be built along one fence. It is best to place them at a place where two or more paddocks join. The picture shows good places for building the rails.
2. sow the seeds along lines through the paddocks. It is best to have three lines of grasses then a line of legumes as you see in the picture.
3. There must be clear places to sow the seeds. It is best to heap up dead weeds and bushes and burn them when they are dry. Then the legume seeds can be planted in the ashes and covered lightly.
4. After sowing the seeds sprinkle a little mixed fertilizer over the sowing lines. This fertilizer must contain phosphorus and potash, so a good mixture is one half superphosphate and one half sulfate of potash or muriate of potash or chloride of potash. The legumes grow much better if they have this fertilizer.
1. cattle need two kinds of foods - energy foods and protein foods. Explain that grasses give energy and plants called legumes give protein.
2. Explain that protein foods let the animal make its meat.
3. Students make short notes about this.
Dig up some whole legume plants and take them into the classroom.
1. Show students that legume plants have leaves with three leaflets.
2. Show students that there are small white nodules on legume roots.
3. Show students the flowers and fruits of a legume.
4. Students make short notes like this: "Legumes: These are plants that contain much protein food."
Legumes have:
1. small white lumps on their roots called nodules. These nodules make the protein food.
2. leaves with 3 leaflets joined.
3. coloured flowers with five petals.
4. fruits shaped like beans. These fruits are called pods. " Try to get some samples of Centro, Puero and Siratro.
2. Explain that this inoculum contains good germs that make the nodules come on the legume roots.
3. Students mix the inoculum with water in a bucket.
4. They use this water to wet the seeds.
5. They spread out the wet seeds on the floor to let them dry. Students help you to sow the legume seeds in the pasture paddocks. It may take more than 2 lessons to get this work done. Students then spread fertilizer along the sowing lines.

11. Care of growing pastures for cattle
While the pasture grasses and legumes are growing, you must take the students to see them every two weeks.
1. The class walks through the pastures in a long line. They take bush knives with them.
2. Students cut down any weeds they see growing in the pasture.
3. Students should also keep a diary and each time they go to the pasture they write down how the plants are growing, e.g. June 12th - Para grass about 15 cm high. legumes starting to germinate. June 26th - Para grass now 60 cm high. legumes have 4 leaves. July 10th - para grass is spreading out. legumes are about 30 cm high. July t - Para grass is now thick and growing over the legumes. legumes starting to make flowers.

12. Cattle yards
Why yards are needed
Cattle are very strong animals, but you often need to do things to them, e.g. you may want to separate them into groups, or to catch one of them. You may want to do things to the cattle like give them some worm medicine or castrate them or look closely at their eyes, their skin etc. Yards are small places that have very strong fences. They also have a long narrow place called a race. It is easy to hold cattle still when you put them into the race. At the end of the race there is also a bail. This is made of strong timber and you can use it to hold the head of the animal still while you do something to it. The cattle cannot get away when they have why yards are needed.
2. Explain the meaning of race, bails and holding yard. A holding yard is just a place where you can put cattle while you are waiting to do something with them. This yard just holds them for us.

13. Building cattle yards
It will take a long time to build the yards, because they must be very strong and the timber must be joined strongly. You should try to borrow a chain saw for this work so you can easily cut the posts and rails. You will also need to have:
1. An auger to bore holes in the posts so you can put bolts through them.
2. A saw to cut places in the posts where the rails will be bolted on.
3. About 16 dozen bolts and nuts. The bolts must be longer than the width of your posts so they will
4. A chain saw for cutting posts and rails.
Choosing a place for the yards
To be useful the stock yards must be built along one fence. It is best to place them at a place where 2 or more paddocks join. The picture shows good places for building the yards. Where to put the posts Some of the posts in the yards must be put in exactly the right position. So you need to have a picture which shows how far apart the posts must be. Look at this picture. You will need about 30 strong posts for the yards. These posts must be 2 m high out of the ground, so the posts must be about 8 feet long. The roils must be strong. They should be 10 cm thick. All the timber must be hardwood. It is no good using soft woods for cattle yards or fences. The cattle would soon break them. Show students all the tools that will be used to build the yards.
2. Make a drawing of the yards on the blackboard and show students how the yards will be built.
3. It would be a good idea if you could make a small model of the yards to put in the classroom. You could use pieces of wood as thick as a pencil for the posts. You could stick the pieces of wood together with a quick drying glue. Students help you to build the yards. In doing all this work it would be a good idea to ask the agriculture department to send someone to show you how to strain the fence wires build the yards sow the pastures When all this work has been done you are ready to have some cattle and you can write a letter to the department of agriculture telling them that you wish to have two steers for your school. Steers are castrated male cattle. Then you can begin to teach the cattle project. How many posts needed?

History
These teaching materials were originally written and illustrated by Mr J. A. Sutherland, Faculty of Education, University of New England, Armidale, Australia and later edited by Dr J. Elfick, School of Education, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.