Manage Farm Land, Equipment & Operations Effectively
Farm engineering is a broad practice which covers things like surveying land, managing soil and water, understanding and designing machinery and farm structures, and ensuring that farm products are used wisely. This course helps students to develop the skills and understanding to apply appropriate and innovative engineering solutions, to improve efficiency and productivity in agriculture and horticulture.
Course Code: BSC205
Course Duration: 100 hours of self paced studies
Course Content
This course covers nine lessons as follows:
Lesson 1. Surveying
- Linear surveying
- Triangulation
- Determining slope
- Triangulation
- Contouring
- Traversing
- Levelling terms
- Grid systems -datum line, reduced level, backsight, change point, etc.
- Types of Level -dumpy, quickset, cowley
- Reading the levelling staff
- Levelling procedure
- Levelling a sloping site
Lesson 2. Earthworks
- Construction machinery and equipment
- Bobcats
- Front end loader
- Tractor
- Backhoe
- Bulldozer
- Explosives
- Shovel, Pick
- Cut and fill method
- Excavation
- Contouring and levelling
- Swales
- Types of Cultivator -Chisel ploughs, discs and harrows, tined cultivators, rotary hoes, etc.
- Calculating earth to move
- Prismordial rule
- Moving existing earth
- Importing soil
- Shaping and settling soil
- Case Study -Constructing a playing field
- Managing Soil degradation -erosion, compaction, salinity, etc
Lesson 3 Water management
- Irrigation systems
- Sub-surface
- Surface
- Sprinkler
- Trickle irrigation
- Irrigation equipment
- Watering cans
- Sprinklers
- Capillary watering
- Automated systems
- Water -sources, quality, treatment
- Pumps -piston, centrifugal, rotary
- Filters
- Irrigation scheduling
- Pulse watering
Lesson 4. Environmental control
- Atmosphere control
- Carbon dioxide effects
- Greenhouse considerations
- Covering materials
- Temperature control
- Benching
- Shade houses
- Outdoor heating
Lesson 5. Chemical Applications
- Applying pesticides
- Parts of a basic sprayer
- Calibration
- Calibrating a knapsack sprayer
- Mixing chemicals
- Sprayer maintenance
- Safe chemical use
- Chemical labelling
- Material Safety Data Sheet
- Safe chemical storage
- Environmental contamination
- Protecting outdoor structures from chemical contamination
- Paints, Stains and Sealers
- Painting outdoor furniture and structures
Lesson 6. Fencing
- Fencing materials - wire mesh, barbed wire, wire strand, posts, strainer assemblies etc
- Traditional wire fencing
- Semi-suspension fencing
- Suspension fencing
- Electric fencing
- Box end assembly
- Post and stay assembly
- Barriers and walls
- Types of timber fence -panels, slats, pickets, hurdles
- Fencing houses and pools
- Gateways and gates
- Rock and rubble walls
- Brick walls
- Concrete walls
- Free standing walls
- Retaining walls
- Trellises
- Wood engineering -softwoods, hardwoods
- Preservatives
- Hedges
Lesson 7. Mechanisation
- Vehicles
- Tractors
- The clutch
- The transmission
- Harvesters
- Mowers -rotary, cylinder, flail, ride on
- Hedge trimmers - shears, blade, saw, flail.
- Trimmer maintenance
- Chain saw use
- Chain saw characteristics - petrol, electric, bar size, etc
- Chain saw maintenance; extending chain life
- Safety with chain saws
- Mulching machines
- Cultivators
- Milking machines
- Soil mixing machines
- Potting machines
- Planters, seeders, drills
- Harvesters -potato, carrot
- Grading machines
Lesson 8. Engineering efficiency
- Overview
- Costs
- Quality of product
- Replacement parts and servicing
Lesson 9. Developing engineering solutions
- Handling equipment
- Trays boxes, Pellets
- Trolleys and barrows
- Trailers
- Fork lifts
- Tractor loaders
- Continuous conveying systems -conveyor belts, mono rails, etc
- Hoppers
- Staff comfort and safety
How This Course Could Help You?
This is a course aimed at anyone working in agriculture or more broadly with machinery - farm consultants, farmers, agronomists, farm managers, agriculturists or anyone in the industry who needs more knowledge on how to make the best use of an agricultural property. It may also be of value to hobby or home farmers too.
Study this course by itself or along with other modules as part of a certificate or higher level qualification.
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