Farm visit to West Galdenoch
This term the whole school topic focus at Leswalt Primary is “Farming”. The school has linked up with RHET, The Royal Highland Education Trust, to further develop this work. As part of this partnership all the pupils at Leswalt Primary went a trip to West Galdenoch Farm to learn more about Dairy Farming. Garry Mitchell is a RHET linked farmer and he spent an afternoon with the boys and girls from Leswalt. Fiona Jamieson the RHEt co-ordinator for Dumfries and Galloway was also on hand to meet the pupils and explain more.
The pupils learned how the milk from West Galdenoch helps make Kit Kats, as milk is sold to Nestle. Pupils helped feed the calves, learned more about stock welfare and paid a visit into the state of the art Rotary milking parlour.
This visit to West Galdenoch really brought alive prior learning in the classroom. Mr Mitchell said he would welcom back Leswalt Primary pupils in a few years time to help him milk his cows and gave everyone a Kit Kat biscuit to reinforce where the milk went once it left the farm.
“I enjoyed feeding his calves” said James Murray in P4
“It was funny when the wee calf was trying to lick me” Craig Anderson p4
“I liked seeing all the cows going round and round in the parlour. I enjoyed my Kit Kat!” Rhona Baillie p3
“It was interesting learning about the difference between a heifer and a cow – I could tell by the size of their bags. A heifer has not had any calves” Mark Mc Colm p7