Group 18 – Gambier Island Sea Ranch – Pig Management Project
This team is of the lucky few chosen to travel to beautiful Gambier Island for their project. They worked with the Gambier Island Sea Ranch to look into the recent health problems of their pigs – over the past 2 years all the pigs have had to be euthanized due to an unknown disease. Speculations were made (possible ring worm infections?) as a tight budget prevented the farm from hiring a veterinarian and suggestions were given (move the pigs to a different field) along with various other advice for their Gambier Island community partner. Due to the nature of their project, group 18 was left with not much else to do so they were given the task of building nesting boxes for the ranch’s chickens. They were a bit frustrated with this because it didn’t involve their specific project, however it served as a great experience for them as none of the group members had any woodworking experience and reassured them of the strength of their team’s character because the boxes actually turned out quite nicely.
Group 18 has a positive outlook on the future of Gambier Island Sea Ranch’s pig rearing because of the foundation they have set and advice given for having happy, healthy pigs. Hopefully the next round of LFS students to undertake this project will find this group’s efforts useful for improving the ranch in the years to come.
Kat.