Southern Hospitality.

With cool but mostly clear weather the Year Eleven Agriculture class explored some Te Anau area farms to help inform their Animal Management and Life Processes topic.

Staying at Te Anau Downs (where the fish were biting!) and with support and organisation from Matthew Macdonald, we visited Bridget Speight's at Whare Creek Station and learned about Body Condition Scoring and wool sorting before venturing to the Ratatu Wetland conservation project to learn about the history of the Waiau River and wetland restoration.

Monymusk Hereford Stud were our next hosts to learn about selecting for traits and what to look for in an animal (and to 'sample' some in a steak sandwich!).

We got to tour Carran's Deer farm, autopsy a sheep with a Vet, weigh some crops for feed budgets, talk to an agronomist and a seed and fertiliser advisor and meet many passionate and knowledgable farmers.

With heads full of information and bellies full of food we were very grateful and blown away by the generosity of our hosts.

A huge thanks to Matthew and Kerry Macdonald for organising our tours and hosting us. Also to our other hosts Bridget Speights and Richard Jordan at Whare Creek Station, Ross Carran and Kerryn McLean from Lochinvar Wapaiti, Chris Douglas at Monymusk Herefords, Paul Ruddenklau from Resolution Farming, Paula McMillan from Advanced Agriculture and Jill McGiibbon from NS Vets.

The biggest thanks also to the amazing Joy Clearwater, our parent help, whom without we could not have done the trip.

We look forward to building on the reconnaissance and the connections we have started to form with families around Te Anau for Agriculture in future years.