Eye of Toad and Tongue of Newton the Newt!

Whilst out and about on the estate this week, Level 3 BTEC Countryside Management students Jacob and Jack stumbled across a European protected species - a Great Crested Newt which they named 'Newton'! This juvenile amphibian was found underneath a log, indicating that breeding ponds were nearby. A new record for this part of the farm - nice work fellas!

Jacob (left) and Jack (right) - take a bow!

Newton the newt!

Where does our recycling go? - Part 1

PMK Recycling Ltd. Picking Line (© PMK Recycling Ltd. 2016)

Do you ever wonder where your recycling goes after you leave it on the kerbside in the bin for the council to take away?

I did, so a trip to the local recycling plant was required. My local one does not actually recycle the goods, but divides them into their separate groups, such as PET plastics, glass, steel, aluminium, and the one that really surprised me was concrete, which was smashed up into small pieces that could be used elsewhere, such as being the aggregate for new concrete. The smashed concrete was outside. along with a large amount of glass bottles straight out of bottle banks which were to be processed.

Inside the first section of the large shed were two hoppers being fed on conveyor belts. Inside the hoppers are trommels with 20mm and 50mm holes to filter out the smallest items. Anything that falls through these holes is whisked away on one conveyor belt, and all the items too large to fall through are taken away on another belt.

The items which fell through the holes are sent into another hopper, which has a large vibrating plate inside. This causes the paper, metals and plastics to be filtered out and sent to one pile, and the glass to be sent to a separate pile.

The conveyor belt with the larger items headed up towards the picking line, however before it reached the line, a magnet removes all the steel. After this, the employees on the picking line remove everything that isn't paper, so all aluminium cans for example. These items are dropped into various bins, which, when full, are put through a baler and stored as a bale ready for the next part of their journey. The paper wasn't picked because it fell into the end bin and was then baled the same way.

I was advised that some of the plastics, such as green drinks bottles, have to be separated from the clear, as they cannot be dealt with the same way, and how the different types of plastics go to different processing plant, depending on the material they are made of. So, for example, an empty packet of washing liquid would be separated from drinks bottles.

It's an impressive process to see how an empty can of drink can go from the bin full of recycling to being separated and ready to be sent away for re-processing in pretty quick time.

Of course all this helps preserve the natural raw materials that, without the companies such the one I visited doing this vital work, would be mined or made, losing more natural resources that are so important to so many aspects of the planet, and creating greenhouse gases that we cannot really manage.

A special thanks goes to Damian at PMK Recycling for his guidance around the site and his explanations of everything I didn't understand (which was a lot!).

Electro-fishing for Beginners!

Just a quick one this - Andy Beal from Absolute Fisheries was in yesterday to demonstrate the art of electro-fishing. This approach involves stunning fish with a electric current so that stock assessments and health checks can be made - all without harming the fish of course!

Image courtesy of Sophie from BSc Land Management! More pix are on our Twitter feed, check it out (including Rob vs. crayfish!): click me

Starting September 2016 - Part-time course

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Find out more at: http://www.moulton.ac.uk/our-courses/part-time
To view the prospectus: Moulton Part-Time 2016 Prospectus 

To contact us, please call us on 01604 491131, or email us on at enquires@moulton.ac.uk, we would love to hear from you.

Tractor Driving

Tractor Driving 27.01.2017

During today's Tractor Driving session, learners got to grip with the College's Case 105c tractor and Case LRA85 front loader. 

Students practised their accuracy of loading by loading into a tipper trailer. Another student would then re-position the tractor and trailer and tip it ready to be re-loaded.

Students really enjoyed the session and learned a useful skill at the same time.

Dakota fire pits

Dakota fire pits!

First year Extended diploma students made a Dakota fire pit this week.

Dakota fire holes are another way of lighting a fire outside with many advantages over a traditional camp fire. Although fairly labour intensive Dakota fire pits burn at a higher temperature with much less fuel than a traditional campfire making them more efficient. You can use them for cooking and boiling water with minimal fuel and water will boil much faster than with a conventional camp fire.

You need to plan carefully, you need to be able to dig easily, in free draining soil that isn’t too wet, or sandy soil which will collapse or rocky conditions in which digging will be impossible.

Dakota fire pits work by drawing air through the tunnel and into the fire chamber; you should build your pit so that the wind is blowing through the tunnel.

Big Garden Birdwatch 28th-30th January

The Big Garden Birdwatch, organised by the RSPB (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) are organising the annual Big Garden Birdwatch for 2017. They have been arranging these since 1979 when it was just done by junior members, and in 2016 more than 519,000 people all over the UK counted 8,262,662 birds!


The 2017 count is the first one to go into three days, from January 28th (Saturday) to Monday January 30th.


It is not too late to be a member of this vital count that tells the RSPB about the decline (or hopefully the increase) in the number of birds on these shores, and monitor their trends.


It is not too late to register and download the pack. Visit https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/ to get involved. You even get £5 off your next RSPB shop order and free delivery if you register before 30th January.