Feedlot Manager - Fun Activities - Environments

Environments - Feedlot Manager

The Feedlot Manager's Working Life: what s/he needs to know: A SWOT analysis

Middle Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

Teacher

To complete this task, students have to know the reasoning behind the SWOT analysis.

The article the students are to explore was produced by the Dept of Agriculture & Fisheries (updated in 2022). I have included this article in the Local Copy of the Student Handout.

Student Handout: Local copy (Word 10 pages). 1 copy for each 4 students

Student Instructions

1. In groups of 4 students, you are to read the following article from “Future Beef” and use the SWOT strategy to understand the considerations, problems and working life of a Feedlot Manager including the mathematics involved to manage beef cattle feedlots. Read

2. After forming learning teams of four, each student is given one of the four SWOT cards. See below.

3. Before proceeding it is important for everyone in the learning team to be familiar with the issue or problem under consideration. In this case, it is “The Feedlot Manager’s Working Life: what s/he needs to know”.

4. Students now leave their learning team and form Expert Groups consisting of students with the same SWOT card (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

5. Brainstorm

In their Expert Groups students brainstorm as many responses as they can in a given time frame.

6. Analyse

Students are to write up as many questions as they can, in their expert groups, for this analysis. Pose at least one Mathematical question.

7. Students now leave their Expert Groups and return to their Learning Team. One at a time they share the ideas generated in the Expert Groups and answer the questions posed.

SWOT

8. Discussion

As a class, they are to answer the question:

"What does a feedlot manager need to know?"

Solid Wastes in the Feedlot - What of it?

Middle Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability Priority

Agriculture & Mathematics Teachers

Article found on Internet at: MLA Beef Cattle Feedlots. Created in 2016.

Local copy: Waste Management and Utilisation PDF

Students

1. Analyse

In groups of 3 - 4 students, you are to analyse a report to Meat & Livestock Association Australia about Waste Management and Utilisation [8 pages]. Write down any interesting facts as you read through this report.

The Introduction states:

"The main waste product of a beef cattle feedlot is manure. To maintain good conditions for workers and cattle and to ensure sound environmental performance, manure must be removed from feedlot pens regularly. Some feedlots use bedding and this, along with small amounts of spoilt feed thrown into the pen during bunk cleaning, is removed with manure during pen cleaning. Thus manure handling becomes a major ongoing part of feedlot management. Spoilt silage and mill run, mortalities, and sometimes boiler ash, are other solid wastes that may also need to be managed." Read

2. How much manure is created?

From the article, you are to work out how much manure (can you tell?) is created in

a. 130 - 150 days in the feedlot if 20mm is created over 25 days; 30 mm created over 75 days; 35 mm is created over 100 days. What is the area of the feedlot?

b. Determine the depth covering at 13 weeks when it is recommended the feedlot is cleaned.

c. Why is cleaning necessary: List at least 4 points.

3. The article states the different types of equipment needed to clean & pick up the manure. Show in a table the 7 different types stated with a photograph of each and cost of each piece of equipment.

4. In the revised manure removal rate for Australian feedlots is 400 - 420kg Total Solids [TS] excreted per Standard Cattle Unit [SCU]/year.

If the feedlot has 800 cattle in the Summer, Spring and Autumn but on 650 in Winter calculate the quanity of manure produced using the information below:

"Quantity of manure removed" [p7]

Keeping interface layer

With manure production of 400 kgof TS/SCU/yr and assuming the manure has a bulk density of 650 kg/m3 and a moisture content of 33%, some 600 kg manure/SCU or 0.9 m3/SCU of manure would be harvested annually. A full 200 SCU pen cleaned every 13 weeks would yield about 47 m3 at each pen cleaning.

Scraping to base
With manure production of 2000 kg of TS/SCU/yr and assuming a manure bulk density of 800 kg/m3 and moisture content of 25% (due to gravel content), some 2700 kg/ SCU or 3.3 m3/SCU capacity of manure would be harvested annually.

A full 200 SCU pen cleaned every 13 weeks could yield about 170 m3 at each pen cleaning, but this would greatly depend on how much pen foundation material is harvested."

5. At Bunnings [July 2023] the following bags of Cow Manure were sold. Look at their qualities and decide as a group which is the best deal. State reasons for your choice.