5 ms·

A tiny school in western NSW has made a small fortune from its first wheat crop

32 points by Gaishan 4y ago

chrispeel 4y ago
Here's an idea: land-grant elementary and high schools in the US :-) Or a tradition of donating land to schools, likely with the requirement that it not be sold, rather the rent used to fund the school
- hcurtiss 4y ago
  In Oregon we did that with forests dedicated to the support of schools. But forest harvest has been significantly handicapped (and on the Elliott halted all together) by environmental activists/litigators.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- andrepd 4y ago
  The latter sounds quite inefficient, with the problem (already present in the current system) of school funding being tied to the wealth of the neighbourhood.
tdeck 4y ago
Apparently "header" is another term for harvester in Australia, in case anyone else wondered.
constantlm 4y ago
Could somebody help me understand which part of the process was handled by the students? From what I can tell prepping, planting and harvesting at the scale of 85ha would be done with giant machines?
- theRealMe 4y ago
  I could have missed it, but it looks like the work was done by community volunteers. I didn’t see anything specific that the kids did other than learn about the process.
Jiro 4y ago
Anyone can make $50000 from wheat if they get free land, free labor, and free machinery. Also, $50000 for 7 students for "most of the year", assuming 7 months, is about $1000 per student per month. They'd make more working at McDonalds.
- aaron695 4y ago
- Aspos 4y ago
  And 170t out of 85ha does not sound extraordinary.
- waste_monk 4y ago
  Per the article: "Seven students from kindergarten to Year 6 attend Hermidale Public School". That would put the oldest kids at around 10 or 11 years old. It's fair to say that they would have difficulties as a commercial farming operation, but for a bunch of little kids trying to fund a trip to the beach it's quite a good result. I think we can forgive them needing a bit of assistance to get their harvest in. Having a quick look at the map, Hermidale to Sydney is about ~600km / 373 miles, or an ~8 hour drive each way, so this has been quite a good fund-raiser in that regard. > They'd make more working at McDonalds. I would imagine that, aside from the difficulties in hiring children so young, they would lose quite a bit of money on travel - the McDonalds map puts the nearest restaurant at Dubbo, which is a ~2h20m drive each way from Hermadale. People are often surprised at how large Australia is.

32 points by Gaishan 4y ago

Here's an idea: land-grant elementary and high schools in the US :-) Or a tradition of donating land to schools, likely with the requirement that it not be sold, rather the rent used to fund the school

hcurtiss 4y ago
In Oregon we did that with forests dedicated to the support of schools. But forest harvest has been significantly handicapped (and on the Elliott halted all together) by environmental activists/litigators.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
andrepd 4y ago
The latter sounds quite inefficient, with the problem (already present in the current system) of school funding being tied to the wealth of the neighbourhood.

tdeck 4y ago

Apparently "header" is another term for harvester in Australia, in case anyone else wondered.

constantlm 4y ago

Could somebody help me understand which part of the process was handled by the students? From what I can tell prepping, planting and harvesting at the scale of 85ha would be done with giant machines?

theRealMe 4y ago
I could have missed it, but it looks like the work was done by community volunteers. I didn’t see anything specific that the kids did other than learn about the process.

Jiro 4y ago

Anyone can make $50000 from wheat if they get free land, free labor, and free machinery. Also, $50000 for 7 students for "most of the year", assuming 7 months, is about $1000 per student per month. They'd make more working at McDonalds.

aaron695 4y ago
Aspos 4y ago
And 170t out of 85ha does not sound extraordinary.
waste_monk 4y ago
Per the article: "Seven students from kindergarten to Year 6 attend Hermidale Public School". That would put the oldest kids at around 10 or 11 years old. It's fair to say that they would have difficulties as a commercial farming operation, but for a bunch of little kids trying to fund a trip to the beach it's quite a good result. I think we can forgive them needing a bit of assistance to get their harvest in. Having a quick look at the map, Hermidale to Sydney is about ~600km / 373 miles, or an ~8 hour drive each way, so this has been quite a good fund-raiser in that regard. > They'd make more working at McDonalds. I would imagine that, aside from the difficulties in hiring children so young, they would lose quite a bit of money on travel - the McDonalds map puts the nearest restaurant at Dubbo, which is a ~2h20m drive each way from Hermadale. People are often surprised at how large Australia is.