Exploring the Importance of Agricultural Education and Farm Visit.

Every day of the week, we face stress, which is sometimes demanding and needs a lot of time and dedication to scale through. Due to the way my schedule has been during this time, I work extra miles to ensure that I am able to meet up with anything we are told to do. Managing life and also getting money and schooling does not come easily, except with dedication.

Early yesterday morning, we were told by one of our lecturers to be in school as early as 7am. Initially, our class was supposed to be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but the morning classes sometimes are for practicals, and we are to make sure we attend classes after practicals.

The practical we went to is a practical at the College of Animal Science farm, where we will be visiting the cattle section, goat rearing section, and sheep rearing section. I was very unhappy because it was too early, and I wouldn't be ready to go to school by then.

We had none, and I woke up and rushed down to school. On my way there, I saw a lot of new machines that I hadn't seen before, but these are farm machines that are used on the farm to make work easier and faster.

While I was going, I met a lot of students on the way who were going to the same practicals I was, so we walked together. The first machine I saw was the Massey Ferguson 275 tractor. This tractor has 72 hp, comes with four-cylinder diesel engines, and also has a powerful, high-torque engine.

This tractor can be used to transport farm goods from one place to another; it can also be used for landscaping and earth maintenance. Also, it can be used for cultivating, harvesting, and so on.

Another machine I saw is the grinding machine, which is used to grind different things, especially dry materials, and make them smooth while it grinds. It also has the roofing sheet that is used to cover it to prevent dust from entering the machine, rain, and rusting.

Also, I saw a chamber that was filled with different tractors that are used to carry out operations. When we got to the farm, we went straight to the sheep section, and we were taught the breeds of sheep, the way they give birth, and also their ways of giving birth.

After that, we went to the cattle rearing section. In this, we saw different breeds of cattle: Red Sokoto (Maradi), N'dama, Keteku, Kano Brown and many more. These animals are reared for money, for meat and food for human consumption, for raw produce, for transportation, for milk production,for conservation grazing, and so on.

And now in the final section, which is the goat section, I actually haven't really seen this breed of goat I saw here; I haven't really seen them before, but I saw them on the farm that day, and they have some characteristics. Some types of goats are Somali, beetal goat and so on.

After all the movement to all the farm sections, we were able to learn about the breeds of different animals and some other things about them. It was a very stressful one at that, and registration was marked for those students that were present for the practical. Our next practical will be on dissecting the anatomy of a farm animal. I will surely be posting that here the next time it holds.