1So, Tim, we have to do a short summary of our work experience on a farm.
2Right. My farm was great,
3but arranging the work experience was hard.
4One problem was it was miles away and I don't drive.
5And also, I'd really wanted a placement for a month,
6but I could only get one for two weeks.
7I was lucky,
8the farmer let me stay on the farm so I didn't have to travel.
9But finding the right sort of farm to apply to wasn't easy.
10No, they don't seem to have websites, do they.
11I found mine through a friend of my mother's, but it wasn't easy.
12No.
13My farm was mostly livestock, especially sheep.
14I really enjoyed helping out with them.
15I was up most of one night helping a sheep deliver a lamb...
16On your own?
17No, the farmer was there,
18and he told me what to do.
19It wasn't a straightforward birth, but I managed.
20It was a great feeling to see the lamb stagger to its feet and start feeding almost straightaway,
21and to know that it was OK.
22Then another time a lamb had broken its leg,
23and they got the vet in to set it,
24and he talked me through what he was doing.
25That was really useful.
26Yes, my farm had sheep too.
27The farm was in a valley and they had a lowland breed called Suffolks,
28although the farmer said they'd had other breeds in the past.
29So were they bred for their meat?
30Mostly, yes.
31They're quite big and solid.
32My farm was up in the hills and they had a different breed of sheep,
33they were Cheviots.
34Oh, I heard their wool's really sought after.
35Yes. It's very hardwearing and they use it for carpets.
36Right.
37I was interested in the amount of supplements they add to animals' feed nowadays.
38Like, even the chickens got extra vitamins and electrolytes in their feed.
39Yes, I found that too.
40And they're not cheap.
41But my farmer said some are overpriced for what they are.
42And he didn't give them as a matter of routine,
43just at times when the chickens seemed to particularly require them.
44Yes, mine said the same.
45He said certain breeds of chickens might need more supplements than the others,
46but the cheap and expensive ones are all basically the same.
47So did your farm have any other livestock, Diana?
48Yes, dairy cows.
49I made a really embarrassing mistake when I was working in the milk shed.
50Some cows had been treated with antibiotics,
51so their milk wasn't suitable for human consumption,
52and it had to be put in a separate container.
53But I got mixed up,
54and I poured some milk from the wrong cow in with the milk for humans,
55so the whole lot had to be thrown away.
56The farmer wasn't too happy with me.
57I asked my farmer how much he depended on the vet to deal with health problems.
58I'd read reports that the livestock's health is being affected
59as farmers are under pressure to increase production.
60Well, he didn't agree with that,
61but he said that actually some of the stuff the vets do, like minor operations,
62he'd be quite capable of doing himself.
63Yeah. My farmer said the same.
64But he reckons vets' skills are still needed.
65Now we've got to give a bit of feedback about last term's modules,
66just short comments, apparently.
67Shall we do that now?
68OK.
69So medical terminology.
70Well, my heart sank when I saw that,
71especially right at the beginning of the course.
72And I did struggle with it.
73I thought it'd be hard,
74but actually I found it all quite straightforward.
75What did you think about diet and nutrition?
76OK, I suppose.
77Do you remember what they told us about pet food
78and the fact that there's such limited checking into whether or not it's contaminated?
79I mean in comparison with the checks on food for humans,
80I thought that was terrible.
81I think the module that really impressed me was the animal disease one,
82when we looked at domesticated animals in different parts of the world,
83like camels and water buffalo and alpaca.
84The economies of so many countries depend on these,
85but scientists don't know much about the diseases that affect them.
86Yes,
87I thought they'd know a lot about ways of controlling and eradicating those diseases,
88but that's not the case at all.
89I loved the wildlife medication unit.
90Things like helping birds that have been caught in oil spills.
91That's something I hadn't thought about before.
92Yeah, I thought I might write my dissertation on something connected with that.
93Right. So, actually I was thinking...