Mixed Production and Aquaculture Farm Workers
Perform routine tasks in support of aquaculture farming operations and farming operations spanning two or more of the four different primary production areas - broadacre crops, horticultural crops, livestock and aquaculture.
On the farm, both sides of the fence
You are a mixed farm worker who spends part of the week with the fish ponds and part with the grain and sheep paddocks. It is 5am. The water tests are due, a grain truck arrives at eight, and the night alarm sounded once while you were asleep.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Last night's alarm went off for about ten minutes and then stopped. Nobody looked at the pond. Can you go and check what is going on before the truck arrives?
Say it stopped by itself, so it was probably just a glitch
The alarm stopped because the aerator had failed and the oxygen had already dropped. You find stressed fish at the surface an hour later. An alarm that stops is not always a problem that has gone.
Check the pond, test the water and tell Delia the readings
You find the aerator tripped, restart it and watch the readings come back up. Delia fixes the cause that afternoon. You turned an alarm into facts that people could act on.
Check the aerator, restart it and carry on without testing the water
The aerator runs, but you don't know how low the oxygen had dropped. Delia asks for the readings and you have none. Fixing the machine is only half of the job.
I counted the dead fish in tank three this morning and it is more than I want to put in the report. Can you log it as a smaller number for now? I will sort out the rest later.
Log the lower number, since she is the boss and will explain it later
The record says one thing and the tank shows another. When the farm is audited, the gap is obvious and Delia is in trouble. Records are a promise that they are true.
Say you'd rather not, and leave the log for her to fill in herself
Delia records the number herself, and it is the real one. You didn't mislead anyone, but she wanted a colleague she could trust to discuss it. Declining is fine, offering help is better.
Log the real count and offer to help her explain why
Delia sighs, then agrees. You help her write down what you saw and the likely cause, and the real number goes in the log. An honest record helps the farm fix the problem.
I've got stockfeed for your sheep and a couple of bags of fish feed on the same load. The silo is on the left for the sheep and the fish feed goes to the shed. Easy to mix up. Do you want me to tip it all in one spot?
Ask him to unload each feed at its own place, and check the labels with you
Joe grumbles then helps. The sheep feed goes to the silo and the fish feed to the shed, and you check the labels against the order. The mistakes are avoided before they happen.
Say yes, because it will save time and you can sort it afterwards
The feeds get mixed, and the fish feed bags end up in the stockfeed bin. Sorting it out costs a day, and some of the feed has to be thrown out. Different feeds are kept apart on purpose.
Let him unload the feeds where he likes, and sort them out yourself later
You do sort it later, but it takes longer than it would have to avoid the mix-up. A bit of planning at the gate would have saved your afternoon.
How it went
The truck leaves, the readings are logged and the fish are feeding well. Work across fish, crops and animals is varied and practical, and it asks you to look closely, record honestly and speak up early. Does the idea of working with water, soil and animals in one place appeal to you?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The reading at dawn
A fictional case set in a barramundi farm with ponds and tanks beside a cropping property, where one team looks after both.
The situation
Ewan worked on a fish farm that also ran a cropping operation. One morning, during the usual water test, he noticed that the oxygen reading in one of the ponds was lower than the day before. The fish at the surface were gulping more than usual, and the aerator on that pond sounded different. The farm manager, Delia, was at the grain shed overseeing a delivery and he was supposed to be helping her.
What they did
Ewan checked the aerator, saw that it was running slowly, and called Delia with the readings. She told him to switch on the backup unit while she finished the delivery. He kept testing the water through the morning and wrote the readings in the log. By midday the oxygen had returned to the usual range and the fish were calmer.
How it turned out
The faulty aerator was repaired that afternoon and no fish were lost. Delia added a second reading to the daily routine and asked Ewan to show new staff how to log it. Ewan says what stayed with him was how quickly a quiet problem can grow in water.
What would you do?
- What would you have done if your boss was busy and you couldn't reach her?
- Why might the fish be a better early warning than a number on a meter?
- How does a good log help the next person who works at the pond?