Mixed Production and Aquaculture Farmers
Plan, organise, control, coordinate and perform aquaculture farming operations and farming operations spanning two or more of the four different primary production areas - broadacre crops, horticultural crops, livestock and aquaculture.
A busy day at the estuary farm
You are the farmer running a small aquaculture business, with fish in tanks, oysters in the water and a buyer coming tomorrow. It is 7am. A storm warning has been issued for the coast, a delivery of feed is due and one tank has a water reading that looks slightly off. You have two staff and a lot to do before dark.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
The reading on tank three is a little different from yesterday. It is not an alarm, but it is not what it normally is. Do you want me to leave it, or should I tell you?
Say it is probably nothing and ask her to carry on with feeding
By afternoon the reading has drifted further and the fish are less active. A small change early is much easier to fix than a big one later. Telling her to ignore it also teaches her not to speak up again.
Thank her, look at the reading yourself, and check the filter and the other tanks before deciding
You find a partly clogged filter and clear it before the storm. Ruby learns that a small observation counts. In farming, the small signs usually come first.
Ask her to keep an eye on it and tell you again in an hour
She does, and the reading is the same, so you act then. It works out, but an hour is a long time with live stock. A first look yourself would have been quicker.
Storm or no storm, I need my twenty kilos of oysters tomorrow morning for a wedding. Can you promise me they will be there? I have already printed the menu.
Promise they will be there, and work out the harvest after the storm passes
The storm is worse than expected and you cannot safely harvest. Callum is left without oysters on the morning of a wedding. Promising what the weather decides is a risk to him as well as you.
Explain the storm risk, harvest what you can today and offer a fallback
You pull most of his order that afternoon and keep it cool. Callum is happy because he knew what was happening. Customers can handle bad news better than surprises.
Say you cannot promise anything until the storm is over
It is honest, but Callum has no time to find another supplier and is frustrated. A little more help would have made the same honesty more useful.
I am here for a routine check. While I am looking around, can you show me your records for water quality and the last two months of stock movements?
Show Pat the records and mention the filter problem and what you did
Pat looks through the records, notes your prompt response and is satisfied. Being open makes the next visit easier and keeps trust with the people who oversee the industry.
Show the records but say nothing about the filter, because it is already fixed
Pat finds a gap in the records anyway and asks about it. The explanation is simple but the omission looks worse than the problem. Open records matter even for small events.
Say you are too busy with the storm and ask Pat to come back next week
Pat agrees, but makes a note, and the next visit is longer and less friendly. Rules about the water and the animals are part of the licence to operate.
How it went
The storm hits at dusk and the farm holds. Mixed and aquaculture farming means looking after animals and equipment, watching the weather and answering to buyers and regulators. Does the idea of caring for living stock in a changing environment 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 3am alarm at the hatchery
A fictional case set in a fictional barramundi and oyster farm on a coastal estuary.
The situation
Jun Watanabe ran a small barramundi hatchery and grow-out farm at Pelican Point. At 3am the oxygen alarm on one of the large tanks went off. Jun's phone showed the reading was dropping. The night staff member, Ruby, was new and had never seen the alarm go off. Thousands of young fish were in that tank, and a buyer was due to collect a different batch at seven.
What they did
Jun talked Ruby through the farm's emergency checklist over the phone while driving in. Ruby switched on the backup aerator and checked the pump, as the checklist said. By the time Jun arrived the reading was recovering. They found a filter blockage that had slowed the water flow. Jun then spent the next hour logging what had happened and what they had done, before the seven o'clock collection.
How it turned out
No fish were lost. Jun updated the checklist with a clearer first step and ran a short practice with every night worker the following week. The buyer collected the order on time without ever knowing.
What would you do?
- Why does a farm need a checklist as well as experience?
- How would you feel being the new person when the alarm goes off?
- What do you notice about how this job mixes outdoor and technical work?