Test Your Sustain-Ability
Play. Sustain. Gain.
Welcome
to
James Ruse
Agricultural High
School
The James Ruse School Farm has been
looking for a manager who can run our farm
Effectively…
Efficiently…
and most importantly of all…
Sustainably.
Countless have tried before and failed…
…doomed to be forgotten in the relentless
march of history…
But those who achieve victory…
…will win eternal fame and glory…
NEXT
DO YOU HAVE
WHAT IT
TAKES??
NEXT
You have two weeks to prove that you’ve
got what it takes to successfully manage
the farm and secure your place amongst
the school’s farming heroes.
You will be asked to make a series of
decisions.
Click on the choice you make to find out if
your decision was correct.
Click the NEXT button to continue to your
next task.
NEXT
Remember to choose the most
sustainable option available.
Record your point score on a
sheet of paper and then check
the scoreboard at the end to
see how you went.
Good luck…and happy farming!
NEXT
Day 1
Your first task is to prepare the
vegetable plots for the first crop by
using a tillage tool for soil preparation.
Day 1
Do you use :
A chisel plough
A rotary hoe
You Chose…
The Chisel Plough
Hooray! You chose a ‘low tillage’ practice. The structure of
the soil remains intact, with the aggregates still present.
The soil is soft and aerated. Any hard pans have been
broken up with compaction being reduced. There won’t be
too much erosion, so organic matter is kept to return
nutrients to the soil. The crop is planted in light, airy soil.
The right choice!
Points: +2
NEXT
You Chose…
The Rotary Hoe
Oh dear…the soil no longer has structure –
aggregates have been shattered and soil clumps
have been broken up. There is now a high chance of
erosion. To make matters worse, there is heavy
rainfall over the next week and most of the soil from
the plots is washed away.
Points: -2
NEXT
Day 2
It has been raining heavily and the soil is very
wet, but you wanted to plough an area of land
for your crops.
Do you:
Go ahead and plough when wet
Wait until the soil is dry
You Chose…
To Plough When Wet
After you have finished ploughing, you realise that the
soil has hardened into a pan – it’s impossible to plant
anything here.
You must spend time and resources to prepare the
land yet again.
Points: -2
NEXT
You Chose…
To Plough When Dry
The soil is ready for planting. It’s well aerated
and not too hard and compacted. Your seeds
will be able to grow and spread their roots
easily to take in nutrients from the soil. Your
crop is on its way to becoming a success. Well
done!
Points: +2
NEXT
Day 3
It’s time to choose which variety of sweet corn
to plant!
Which variety do you use?
Normal variety (Early Chief)
Disease resistant variety (Bandit)
You Chose…
Early Chief
Oh no! The corn crops were growing well but
were attacked by a sudden outbreak of rust.
Most of your plants have been infected by this
contagious fungal disease and died.
Points: -2
NEXT
You Chose…
Bandit
Phew! Your choice of using a disease resistant
crop means that the plants haven’t been
severely affected by the sudden outbreak of
rust.
Points: +2
NEXT
Day 4
It’s time to choose your row spacing as you
start planting your corn seeds. You have to
decide the best way to increase yield.
Do you:
Plant more seeds closer together
Plant fewer seeds but space them out
You Chose…
To Plant More Seeds
Closer Together
You’ve got more plants growing, so you’ll get a larger
harvest right? Unfortunately, you haven’t considered that
planting your seeds so close together means that they have
to compete with each other for nutrients, so the quality of
your harvest will be compromised. What’s more, planting
them so close together makes them more susceptible to the
spread of diseases and pests like rust and Heliothis.
Points: -2
NEXT
You Chose…
To Space Out Your
Seeds
Even though this means that you’ve got less plants
growing, they don’t have as much competition from
each other so each plant can produce good, highquality corn. Not only that, with spaced out plants, air
flow and circulation is improved so the spread of
diseases like rust can be reduced.
Points: +2
NEXT
Day 5
You’ve decided to fertilise your newly planted
crop to encourage growth.
Do you use:
Organic fertiliser (Dynamic Lifter)
Non-organic fertiliser
You Chose…
Dynamic Lifter
YAY! Three cheers for you! Your crops have
slow release of nutrients and the soil is very
fertile from the rich organic material which
means your plants will grow quicker. Well
Done!
Points: +2
NEXT
You Chose…
Non-organic Fertiliser
Your plants are growing but the soil is becoming
infertile and harder to grow on! It has poor
nutrient levels. Your plants die anyway from poor
soil. Remember to think SUSTAINABLE and what
is best for the farm! You have to re-fertilise the
soil and this has cost your time and money.
Points: -2
NEXT
Day 6
It’s time to start irrigating the crop. Remember
that you have a limited supply of water, so you
need to choose an efficient system.
Do you use:
Drip Irrigation
Surface Irrigation
You Chose…
Drip Irrigation
Although you have to spend more money to
get the system set up and all the pipes laid
down, the water is delivered individually to
each plant and efficiency is increased. You’re
not wasting water, and so you’re reducing
your costs in the long run. Good choice!
Points: +2
NEXT
You Chose…
Surface Irrigation
Although you don’t have to spend as much
money setting up your irrigation system, you find
that this method has led to waterlogging,
salinization and deep drainage problems. Your
crop is starting to suffer, and you’re going to
have to spend money trying to fix the soil. Tough
luck!
Points: -2
NEXT
Day 7
Now it’s time to add final touches to the soil to
increase production.
Do you choose to:
Mulch
Not Mulch
You Chose…
Mulching
Mulch is organic material used to cover weeds
and protect the moisture from leaving the
plant. By choosing this sustainable choice,
your plants grow quicker with less
competition.
Points: +2
NEXT
You Chose…
Not to Mulch
Are you sure? This method is cheaper BUT your
plants have less resistance against weeds
and in a hot climate your crop will quickly
lose moisture and perish. Your level of
production is lower, you make less money.
Points: -2
NEXT
Day 8
Oh No! It’s rust season and your crop is under
threat from those red brown fungi, but you’re
short on time and money.
Do you:
Leave the plants
Buy expensive fungicide and spray
You Chose…
To Leave the Plants
Even though you’ve saved money and time, the
fungal disease has spread rapidly throughout
your crop and destroyed most of your plants.
Unfortunately, this means you’ve lost most of
this season’s harvests. Better luck next time!
Points: -2
NEXT
You Chose…
To Spray Fungicide
Even though you had to spend a lot of time
and money, your crops are safe from rust and
are continuing to grow well. You’ll probably
earn most of your money back from your
successful harvest. Good job!
Points: +2
NEXT
Day 9
You successfully planted a year’s corn crop.
But what about next year? What do you do with
the empty land?
Do you:
Leave it there
Rotate with other available land, planting
legumes and grasses
You Chose…
Leave As It Is
It has no use anyway, right? WRONG! This land
is very important and should be allowed to
regenerate for planting next year. You come
back months later and find it is infertile and
eroded. Not good.
Points: -2
NEXT
You Chose…
Rotate and Revegetate
YES! By rotating the land, it allows the land to
recover and regain nutrients for next year
whilst also preventing erosion. You find the
land fertile and reusable for next year and
the next.
Points: +2
NEXT
CONGRATULATIONS!
After successfully harvesting your sweet corn
crop and managing your vegetable plot, it’s not
over yet!
Now it’s time to move over to the animal
enterprise...
NEXT
Day 10
You only have a limited number of paddocks on
the farm, but you have to both graze cattle and
grow crops on the land you have.
Do you:
Annually rotate paddocks between grazing cattle
and growing crops
Allocate certain paddocks specifically for either
grazing cattle or growing crops year after year
You Chose…
To Annually Rotate Your
Paddocks
Good job! Annually rotating your paddocks between
grazing cattle and growing crops means that your soils
doesn’t become to deficient in nutrients from growing
crops, nor does it become overgrazed or compacted
from the cattle. It’s worth the extra work organising and
managing everything after all.
Points: +2
NEXT
You Chose…
To Allocate Paddocks
Specifically
Even though you can get off with less organising and
managing paddock rotation, you find that after a few years,
the paddocks that have been used for continuous crop
growing have become deficient in nutrients, and the
paddocks that have been used for cattle grazing are in fact
overgrazed and now have hard, compacted soil from the
animals’ trampling. Maybe the extra organisation would
have been better!
Points: -2
NEXT
Day 11
You’ve now chosen the area of land where your
cattle will be grazing.
Do you choose to adopt:
Continuous Grazing
Strip/Rotational Grazing
You Chose…
Continuous Grazing
Even though you don’t have to worry about the
hassles of moving cattle from place to place, the
pasture has a higher risk of becoming overgrazed,
the soil is compacted from the cattle trampling
and certain internal parasites are starting to
infect your cattle.
Points: -2
NEXT
You Chose…
Strip/Rotational Grazing
It takes more work, time and effort moving the cattle
from one area to another, and you’ve spent more
money purchasing the portable fencing system, but
your pasture and soil are healthier, and you’ve broken
up the life cycle of those pesky internal parasites, so
your cattle are healthier too!
Points: +2
NEXT
Day 12
It’s a busy time of year and you’re preoccupied
with lots of other jobs, but you need to decide
whether or not to prioritise your remaining
tasks with the cattle.
Do you choose to:
Vaccinate
Not vaccinate
You Chose…
To Vaccinate
You had to spend more time and money buying
the vaccine and carrying out the vaccinations,
but now you can rest much easier knowing
your herd is protected against many diseases.
Points: +2
NEXT
You Chose…
To Not Vaccinate
Well, you have saved a lot of time and money so
you could get other jobs done, but a few months
later, your cattle are starting to get infected by
various diseases. You need to spend more money
buying medicine to cure them. Perhaps it would
have been better to just get the vaccinations done
and over with beforehand.
Points: -2
NEXT
Day 13
Bad news! You’re running seriously short on
funds, but you were going to buy a drenching
gun and medicine.
Do you choose to:
Drench
Not Drench
You Chose…
To Drench
Your funds are almost depleted, but you’ve
managed to drench your entire herd. None of
them get sick, and as a result, they grow healthily.
Even better, at the end of the year, you reap high
profits from the good quality beef carcasses.
Points: +2
NEXT
You Chose…
To Not Drench
You’ve managed to save the remaining funds you
have, but later on your cattle are afflicted by
various diseases. Some cattle die, others have
reduced growth due to illness. Your profits
plummet at the end of the year because your beef
carcasses aren’t all that good in quality. Better
luck next time.
Points: -2
NEXT
Judgement Day
< 8 points: Good try. Unfortunately, this job just doesn’t
seem right for you. Instead of considering a career change,
though, try again next time!
10 – 18 points: Good work! You are highly commended for
your efforts. Keep working hard and you’ll definitely become
a top farm manager.
20 – 24 points: Well done! You’ve demonstrated your
impressive sense of judgement. You’re almost at the top!
26 points: Full marks! Amazing! You are the elite of the elite,
demonstrating shrewd judgement and thorough knowledge
of sustainable practices. Congratulations on becoming the
next Farm Manager of James Ruse. You can join the ranks
of other legendary farm managers throughout the school’s
history. Be proud!
More about
JRAHS
The Real James Ruse
Here at the James Ruse Agricultural
School Farm, we do in fact carry out
heaps of sustainable practices to help
our enterprises run more efficiently and
productively without negative impacts
on the environment.
Acknowledgements
The Real James Ruse cont…
Some of the things we do include:
• Place wood chips for mulch around our peach
and orange orchard trees
• Cycle products between enterprises, e.g. chicken
manure is used as organic fertiliser on our
vegetable plots.
• Timed drip irrigators are used on our orchard
trees to reduce water wastage
• Hay is used as mulch on vegetable plots
• Annual crop rotation is carried out with class
vegetable plots
Acknowledgements
The Real James Ruse cont…..
• Kikuyu grass is allowed to grow around orange
and peach trees for mulching purposes
• Pasture rotation is carried out with our grazing
sheep and cattle
• The school uses disease resistant crops
• The school regularly carries out practices such
has vaccinations, drenching and utilises strip
grazing with the cattle
• Every year, we rotate areas of land between
grazing pastures for the animals and vegetable
plots for the students.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
We thank the respective owners for these
photos:
• http://www.freefoto.com/preview/
• http://haysvillelibrary.files.wordpress.com/
• http://www.arts-wallpapers.com/
• http://1.bp.blogspot.com/
Created by Cherie Chen et al James Ruse High School
WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE SPONSORS OF THE
2011 CREAM OF THE CROP COMPETITION
PLATINUM
GOLD
SILVER
BRONZE