COLLEGE CALENDAR
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Kate Oleszko is a 21-
year-old fourth year
degree student on an
Agriculture with Animal
Science course at Harper
Adams in Shropshire
TIME management is what fourth year life is really about. Teaching you how to stay up late, night after night, stressing about finishing assignments and preparing presentations. Oh, and for those spare few moments in the day theres your IP (investigational project) to do.
My IP is a trial into the effects of feeding whole-crop wheat on dairy cow performance and blood metabolite concentrations. Only 168 days left to write it now.
It will all be worth it in the end when graduation day arrives; on many occasions Ive sat and wondered what we will all look like wearing those funny-looking hats and Batman capes.
Early mornings and late nights milk sampling, feeding and pushing cows through out-of-parlour feeders form a regular part of my week. Its always when you are really into your assignment that you realise the time and end up back on the farm again, checking that cows have eaten their daily concentrate allowance and that their transponder collars all work.
And, as always, there are the troublesome cows that havent eaten all their concentrates, so then they have to be pushed through. Some evenings, this can be a major task if over 20 out of the 44 trial cows havent finished because only three cows can eat at one time!
Ive spent so many hours with these trial cows sitting in their cubicles waiting for them to finish eating so I can push some more through, Im sure some wait for me each time just for fun.
My social life has become very limited. Its worked around the cows (and, of course, when I can finally get rid of that oh-so-lovely cow smell which my housemates love so much) and assignments. I hope, however, I can always make time for a pint on a Wednesday night to catch up on the gossip and to see all my friends.