For those of you who don't know Tayla she is a graduate Horticulturalist who currrently works forone Harvest and travels between Tasmania and Queensland. Tayla wasn't bought up in rural Australia but instead Sydney and didn't have any agricultural background. Her first interest in Agriculture was the veggie patch at High School in years 10 and 11. When Tayla finished school she was unsure about what she would study and went onto University and did an Environmental Science Degree which introduced her to The Agricultural Industry. While at University this was where she was introduced to agriculture and changed her degree to and Agricultural Science Degree.
Taylah studied Agricultural Science at Griffith and looked at farming, growing and cropping. She undertook a research project for one year studying cotton. But her first introduction to Horticulture was om a field trip in New Zealand where they looked at different farms and the climate. This was a field that she was interested in and wwanted to be a part of.
Since Taylah has left University she has worked in many different Industries. These have included the cotton, cattle and sheep yards.
To understand our industry Taylah spoke about the meaning of Haorticulture. She told us that is was a very broad term "Everything that grows" flowers, fruit and vegetables and nuts.
Her current position is a graduate horticullturalist with One Harvest where she has been working in Tasmania learning about the harvesting process of spinach, coral lettuce and rocket. Her first job was on the harvesting team in tasmania where she worked on getting crops ready, harvesting and in the factory. Her second job was bagging and packing the spinach.
Do you know how long it takes to pack a box of lettuces/ spinach ? It takes approx. 20 secs
Do you know why the bags of lettuce and spinach are packed upside down? So you can see the use by dates.
Her third job has been talking to supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths about their orders.
We also learn't about the many careers available in the agriculture Industry and how today due to technological advancements there are many new career opportunities available.
Food Waste was another area that we were interested in learning more about. Tayla talked about how organisations like Food bank are utilising any foods that are left over. Ugly fruit or vegetables these are the fruit or vegetables that aren't perfectly shaped or coloured. Woolies now has changed their marketing and are selling ugly fruit at cheaper prizes and with different packaging.
"Ugly Fruit , Same but different."
Root to Stem Movement is another program to reduce the amount of waste and increase your savings. This is done by eating the entire fruit or vegetable. For example watermelon rind, potato skin, carrot top dip and broccoli stalks.
Biosecurity was another topic that we talked about and impact it has on farmers. Protecting our farms from pests and disease by having procedures in place on our farms so that we can eliminate any risks to our crops.
" Stop at the gate, protect your mate"
Tayla spoke to us about "The Rippa" and "The Swagbot" two automated machines that will helpt to make farming easierin the future.
Tayla loves working in an Industry where she can educate children about the process of food production as well as encouraging children to eat a range of fruits and vegetables.
Did you know that 95% of young children aged betwen 2 and 18 years don't eat enough vegetables. This is something that we can all work on to improve and we at Gwynneville hope that our 2018 entry in The Archibull Prize will help get children interested in eating more fruits and vegetables.
Tayla's visit to our school was lots of fun she provided us with a great insight into her job with One harvest and The Horticultural Industry.
We loved the hands on activity where we were packing and unpacking boxes of Rocket.
Tayla also explained Biosecurity in a way that we were able to understand.
Tayla had set up two trays one with paint and the other with water. The boys stepped into the trays and then walked along the butchers paper to show how the transfer of dirt can occur on a farm.
Eating a Rainbow everyday is something that Tayla would like all children to be doing each and everyday. Eating a balanced diet should always have a range of colours on the one plate..
Horticulture tayla field from TracyDevlin2
The video shows some of the question time that students had with Tayla when she visited our school.
https://youtu.be/EPwBWiPAcFo
The video shows some of the question time that students had with Tayla when she visited our school.
https://youtu.be/EPwBWiPAcFo
