Animal Training

• Identification of the anatomical ventricles of the body
• Identification of the various parts of a bull’s and cow’s genitals
• Observation and identification of a cow/heifer on heat
• Use of a teaser-bull to mark a cow/heifer on heat
• Determining the correct time of insemination
• Handling the nitrogen flask, the pistolet, a plastic sheath and it’s container
• Handling frozen seed straws
• Preparation of instruments and apparatus
• Preparation of a cow on heat
• Defrosting of semen
• Loading of the pistolet and insemination of the cow/heifer
• Noting down applicable information
• Cleaning and storing of instruments and apparatus
• Rendering assistance to a cow while in labour and problems with afterbirth

• Registration and orientation
• Adhere to all safety and housekeeping rules
• Lay out a broiler house
• Principles of broiler houses
• Perform viability study
• Obtain suitable equipment
• Layout and set up broiler house
• Maintain broilers:
• Order and receive broilers
• Care for the chicks
• Feed, water and brooding
• Maintain broiler health and hygiene
• Disinfect broiler houses and equipment
• Solve broiler problems
• Maintain broiler records
• Record broiler weights
• Record feed and maintenance expenses
• Keep cashbook records
• Record sales/income
• Market broilers
• Identify your customers
• Select the best location
• Advertise

• Preparation of the brooder and brooder house and rearing house
• Water and feed supply
• Placing of chickens with brooder
• Maintenance of bedding
• Regulation of temperature
• Execution of inoculation and dosing program
• Cut back of the beak
• Lighting program
• Save handling methods of chickens
• Moving procedures
• Caring of chickens
• Grading of chickens
• Diagnosis of disorder
• Record keeping

Breeding stock and laying hens

• Hygienic measures
• Selection and moving of breeding hens
• Handling of hens in the battery
• Caring of drinking and feeding troughs.
• Lighting program
• Caring of nests for breeding hens
• Feeding of new chickens
• Checking for insufficient pairing
• Prevention and controlling of diseases and pests
• Diagnosis of disorders.
• Execution of veterinary treatment
• Checking for problems of layer hens
• Culling of chickens.
• Collection and selection of eggs
• Putting of eggs in egg – holders
• Record keeping 

Broilers:

• Implementation of hygienic measures.
• Preparation of broilers.
• Feeding of broilers.
• Care of drinking and feeding troughs.
• Control of temperature and airflow in broiler house
• Lighting program.
• Disease and vaccination program.
• Provision of floor space for broilers.
• Handling of broilers before slaughtering.
• Water management.
• Record keeping.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Sustainable chicken production
1.2 Raising fowl and small animals in urban areas
1.3 Aspect to be considered before starting up poultry farming
1.4 Finding funds
1.5 Availability of feed mills and other facilities
1.6 Production under contract
1.7 Buildings and equipment
1.8 Broilers versus egg layers

2. LABOUR AND MANAGEMENT

2.1.1 Managing a poultry farm
2.1.2 Economics of production
2.1.3 Management requirements for waterfowl
2.1.4 Management requirements for laying flocks
2.1.5 Management requirements for meat bird flocks
2.1.5.1 Hatching and servicing chicks
2.1.5.2 Incubation
2.1.5.3 Chick processing
2.1.5.4 Beak trimming
2.1.5.5 Hatchery vaccination
2.1.5.6 Hatchery losses
2.1.6 Transporting poultry
2.1.7 Managing waste
2.1.7.1 Manure management, odor and diseases control
2.1.7.2 Disposal of dead birds
2.1.7.3 Managing litter

3. EGGS: INCUBATION AND HATCHING

3.1 Egg hatching sanitation
3.2 Incubating eggs

4. CHICKS

4.1 Brooding and growing
4.2 Brooding temperature
4.3 Litter
4.4 Light for brooding
4.5 Chick guards
4.6 Feeding and watering procedures
4.7 Space

5. CARE OF JUVENILE AND ADULT BREEDING STOCK

5.1 Feeding
5.2 Nests
5.3 Lighting
5.4 Egg care, handling, sanitation and storage

6. HOUSING ENVIRONMEN FOR POULTRY PRODUCTION

6.1 Housing design and placement
6.2 Selecting a site for your facility
6.3 Hot weather management in a poultry house
6.4 Poultry house ventilation
6.5 Poultry house lighting
6.6 Air quality
6.7 Monitoring conditions in your poultry house

7. POULTRY NUTRITION

7.1 Nutrition in small flocks
7.2 Poultry nutrient requirements
7.3 Fish meal in the poultry diet
7.4 Meat and bone meal in poultry diets
7.5 Water quality and broilers
7.6 Feeding mistakes and feed quality

8. POULTRY PRODUCTION AND WATER QUALITY

9. DISEASES OF CHICKENS

9.1 Disease management
9.2 Pest and disease management
9.3 Pest control
9.4 Control of poultry disease outbreaks
9.5 Identification and treatment of common mites and lice of birds
9.6 Eye disorders of poultry
9.7 Managing heart stress
9.8 Fly control in the poultry house
9.9 Rodent control in the poultry house
Preventing food poisoning and food infection
Health maintenance programs
9.11.1 Immunization
9.11.2 Development of immunization programs
9.11.3 Cleaning and disinfecting house and equipment
9.11.4 Preventive medication
9.11.5 Farm security
9.11.6 Monitoring mortality

10. PRODUCING DUCK AND GEESE

Production for meet
Requirements
Brooding and rearing
Management and housing
Nutrition, water and pastures
Marketing
Hygiene and disease control
Integrated farming

10.8.1 Weeding with geese
10.9 Flock replacement and recycling
10.10 Small flocks
10.11 Management
10.12 Sexing
10.13 Breeding
10.14 Egg care
10.15 Cleaning and plucking

11. PRODUCING TURKEYS

11.1 Facilities
11.1.1 Layout
11.1.2 Brooders
11.1.3 Lighting
11.2 Sexing
11.3 Debeaking and desnoodling
11.4 Toe clipping
11.5 Pest control
11.6 Health
12. SMALL SCALE PROCESSING OF POULTRY

Introduction

• Where are poultry processed
• Planning
• Economics
• Management
• Auditing a poultry slaughter facility

• How are poultry slaughtered
  • Electrical stunning followed by neck-cutting
  • Electrical stunning or electrical killing
  • Gas killing
  • Neck dislocation
  • Decapitation

Operation systems in a poultry processing plant

• Handling poultry
• Processing
• Packaging
• Refrigeration

Layout of a slaughter house

• Facilities required
• Equipment and machinery
• Hygienic principles of design
• Clean and dirty areas
• Product flow
• Equipment
• Drains, floors, walls, ceilings, doors and windows
• Service runs
• Lighting and ventilation

Facilities required in specific areas

• General aspects of the building
• Water and steam
• Drainage
• Outside areas
• Livestock reception area
• Reception loading area
• The slaughter hall
• Evisceration and chilling room
• Packing room
• Chilling rooms
• Freezing rooms
• Dispatch
• Dry stores
• Offal room

Staff facilities

• Hand and boot wash
• Laundry
• Offices

Waste disposal and effluent treatment

General Operation

• Stunning , bleeding and slaughtering
• Scalding
• Defeathering
• Evisceration
• Cooling
• Cutting
• Packaging
• Grading
• Refrigeration
• Dispatch

Health, Hygiene and maintenance

• External contamination
• Slaughter inspection of live birds
• Microbial implications during slaughter
• Post slaughter inspections
• Staff health and hygiene
• Plant sanitation and maintenance
• Sanitation and maintenance schedules

Apply standard honeybee feeding procedures

Session 1              Follow correct on-farm procedures to maintain feed quality.

Session 2             Apply feed level control and record keeping.

Session 3              Selection of appropriate feed type and quantity as per instruction.

Session 4              Observe and report on feed quality before allowing bees access to the feed.

Session 5              Apply correct feeding practices under supervision.

Session 6              Identify and report abnormal feeding behaviour in bees.

Define production and understand the basic activities of production / conversion in the agri-business environment

Session 1              Describe the rudiments and components of the agricultural production environment.

Session 2              Identify the components and purposes of basic production systems.

Session 3              Identify basic production factors used in the agricultural production process.

Session 4              Define the production and conversion process in terms of an agricultural business environment.

Food safety

Session 1              Apply good personal hygiene practices.

Session 2              Demonstrate an understanding of risk factors in food contamination.

Session 3              Apply preventative measures against food contamination.

Session 4              Understand and adhere to warning signs regarding product safety

Hand tools and basic equipment and infrastructure

Session 1              Select and use appropriate equipment and implements for a specific agricultural task.

Session 2              Recognise and act on problems related to the use of hand tools and basic equipment in an agricultural environment

Session 3              Perform routine maintenance tasks to agricultural equipment.

Session 4              Store equipment correctly and safely.

Session 5              Identify and apply the correct safety measures when using hand tools and basic agricultural equipment and implements.

Water quality

Session 1              Demonstrate a basic ability to sample and observe water quality.

Session 2              An ability to perform maintenance tasks on certain operational technical systems is demonstrated

Session 3              The ability to handle systems to maintain water quality is demonstrated.

Session 4              Record basic observations and applications regarding water quality.

Sustainable bee farming

Session 1              Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of farming operations and practices on the environment.

Session 2              Identify farm and domestically generated waste and pollutants and apply environmentally friendly methods of disposal and/or re-use.

Session 3              Apply practices to maintain and increase biodiversity.

Session 4              Control invasive alien plant species and noxious weeds.

Session 5              Prevent the spread of veldt fires using on farm firebreaks and/or fireguards.

Session 6              Apply basic control and preventative measures to enhance the soil’s capacity to hold water and prevent water run-off.

Apiary layout and infrastructure

Session 1              Recognise veldt, planted pasture and arable land, and understand the need to fence vegetation types separately.

Session 2              The animal life, the impact of bees and humans are recognised and the need for the conservation of related natural resources in the layout of the farm is understood.

Session 3              The need to plan the farm and infrastructure to limit the impact on natural resources and ensure sustainable resources use are recognised.

Session 4              Construct prevention structures and elementary infrastructure as planned for farm layout.

Session 5              Maintain prevention structures and report major problems to a supervisor.

Honeybee external animal anatomy and morphology

Session 1              Identify and name the class, species and type of bee according to criteria and under supervision.

Session 2              Identify and name the components and the externally visible divisions or parts of a bee and identify gross abnormalities therein.

Session 3              Understand the basic concepts of further anatomical systems within bees according to criteria.

Session 4              Identify and describe the morphological attributes of bees by which they are classified.

Session 5              Identify and describe the bee’s life cycle.

Breeding behaviour of honeybees

Session 1              Recognise normal mating behaviour in breeding bees.

Session 2              Observe abnormal mating behaviour in breeding bees.

Session 3              Identify successful mating amongst breeding bees.

Session 4              Observe breeding bees for post breeding behaviour.

Defensive behavior in honeybees

 

Session 1              Understand and describe behaviour of specific bees

Session 2              Identify symptoms of defensive behaviour.

 

Session 3              Describe management protocol for relevant bees to minimise defensive behaviour.

Session 4              List relevant equipment required to manage relevant bees.

Harvest honeybee products

Session 1              Understand and describe the origin of bee products for harvesting and use.

Session 2              Understand and describe the indicators and their status used to describe the readiness of the bee products for harvesting.

Session 3              Understand and describe the names, identification and potential of various bee products to be harvested.

Session 4              Describe and demonstrate correct procedures for the harvesting of specific bee products.

Benefits of beekeeping for agriculture

Session 1              Understand and describe the origin of nectar, pollen and propolis in plants.

Session 2              Understand and describe the effects of environmental factors on the production of nutrient and products in a plant.

Session 3              Understand and describe the names, identification of the most important known nutritional resource plants for nectar, pollen and propolis production.

Session 4              Understand and describe the potential of the most important known bee-plants.

Sustainable beekeeping systems

Session 1              Recognise basic environmental patterns and processes.

Session 2              Demonstrate an elementary comprehension of farming systems and design.

Session 3              Identify and describe measurable indicators of sustainability.

Apply basic agricultural enterprise selection principles (considerations before starting a bee keeping business)

Session 1              Name natural resources required for the selection of the relevant enterprise.

Session 2              Describe infrastructure requirements for the selection of the relevant enterprise.

Session 3              Identify appropriate crops and/or animals for the relevant enterprise.

Session 4              Identify production cycle within relevant enterprise.

Session 5              Identify harvest practice within the relevant enterprise.

Session 6              Identify post harvest practice within relevant enterprise.

 

Identify the need for capital and understand the need for the recording of the income and different costs in an agri-business

Session 1              Describe the need for investment capital, where it can be acquired and how it can be categorised within an agri-business.

Session 2              Explain the flow of money in an agric-business.

Session 3              Describe the flow of costs in an agri-business.

Session 4              Identify the basic components of financial information and record keeping system and the basic administration procedures regarding source documents.

Session 5              Provide inputs to a simple record keeping system for an agri-business, and be able to extract managerial information from it.

The student must be able to understand, explain, demonstrate and apply a basic knowledge of:

• Soil sampling
• Calibration of a fertiliser applicator
• Plan pasture field sizes
• Maintain fences
• Apply water reticulation
• Interpret soil analysis
• Use tables to apply pasture types
• Prepare field
• Establish pastures
• Manage pastures

• Handling cattle during counting
• Handling cattle during loading for transport purposes
• Handling cattle while herding on public roads
• Handling cattle in a crush
• Measuring mass
• Using a neck clamp
• Using a tilt crush
• Pulling down cattle
• Caring of hooves
• Using nose-pliers
• Temporary identification of cattle
• Fitting ear tags
• Branding cattle
• Determining age
• Determining general health
• Determining temperature
• Injecting cattle
• Dosing cattle
• Treatment against external parasites
• Treating eye infection
• Treating hoof infection
• Treating bloat
• Treating unknown diseases
• Emergency treatment
• Supplying water
• Extensive feeding
• Intensive feeding

• Adhere to all safety and housekeeping rules

Handle, care for and control cattle:

• During counting
• During loading
• While urging on public road
• In crush
• Use a halter
• Use a neck clamp
• Use a tipping crush
• Pull down cattle and keep them under control
• Care for hoofs
• Affix a nose ring
• Tattoo ears
• Affix ear tags
• Branded cattle

Determine:

• Age
• Mass

Control and treat diseases-adult cattle:

• Determine general health
• Measure temperature
• Inject
• Dose
• Handle/report unknown diseases

Treat cattle against:

• External parasites
• Eye infection
• Hoof infection
• Mastitis
• Poisoning
• Bloat
• Emergencies

Maintain and build up the condition of cattle by providing:        

• Water
• Roughage
• Concentrates
• Licks

Feed cattle:

• Extensively
• Intensively
• Replacement heifers
• Dairy cattle
• Beef cattle

Prepare for market

• Establish breeding stock
• Care for herd bulls
• Detection of oestrus
• Keep records
• Handle a pregnant cow
• Prepare a calving pen
• Assist during calving

Maintain:

• Feeding
• Water supply/throughs
• Fences
• Pens
• Feed sheds

• Adhere to all safety and housekeeping rules
• Catch and restrain piglets
• Moving
• Litter
• Group of piglets (5 weeks or older)
• Loading piglets onto a vehicle
• Processing piglets
• Trimming teeth
• Disinfecting the navel
• Docking the tail
• Ear marking
• Tattooing
• Dosing
• Injecting (iron substance)
• Castrate

Module I – Procedures in sty used for mating purposes

• Feeding
• Implementing health regulations
• Monitoring and record keeping
• Cleaning, disinfecting and move bedding
• Control and handle adult pigs
• Routine care for dry sows
• Mating process

 

Module II – Procedures in sty used for young and rearing purposes

• Feeding
• Implementing health regulations (Sows and piglets)
• Cleaning of sty
• Catching and handling piglets
• Rearing a litter

Module III – Establish breeding stock         

• Select breeding stock
• Supervise breeding process
• Rear litter

Module IV – Sale of pigs

• Weigh and select for sale
• Prepare for sale or shows
• Load and transport pigs

Module I – General

• Handling and controlling of small stock
• Determining the age
• Moving and loading of sheep
• Weighing of adult sheep

Module II – Feeding and caring

• Feeding of sheep with the use of roughage self feeders
• Care and feeding of ewes with young
• Identifying difficulties during lamming lactating period
• Rendering first aid to ewes with lamming problems
• Weaning of lambs
• Care of ewe after weaning
• Care of rams before and during the mating season
• Feeding and care of sheep during periods of drought

Module III – Raising lambs

• Fostering a lamb
• Care of orphaned lambs
• Castration of lambs using the knife method, bloodless method and rubber ring method
• Weighing of lambs
• Record keeping

Module IV – General health and condition

• Recognize signs of good health and disorders in sheep
• Crouching of sheep
• Inoculation and dosing
• Caring of hooves

Module V – Selection and mating

• Selection of ewes for fertility
• Selection of ewe lambs for breeding
• Determining libido and ability to mate
• Implementation of flock-mating, group mating and mating by hand

This course outlines the knowledge base that a prospective person will acquire to pursue a career in aquaculture.

1. Introduction to Aquaculture; The Biology of the Fish, Water Properties (Water Quality), Water as a Working Media (Water Treatment), Hatchery Operation, Fish production systems Fish Health and diseases
2. Disease Prevention and Treatment
3. Handling and transporting live fish; Equipment, Oxygen requirements, Water regimes
4. Feeding and Nutrition; Identification of protein sources, Feeding regimes
5. Forecasting stock growth and planning
6. Facility design and system planning
7. Equipment operation
8. Equipment maintenance skills
9. Emergency alarm response
10. Fish harvesting techniques
11. Personal Hygiene Requirements
12. Food Safety Issues And Control
13. Facility Cleaning And Monitoring (Bio – Security)
14. Developing Standard Operating Procedures
15. Quality Management Programs
16. Record Keeping
17. Business Operation – How to start a fish farming business, Operation of a farming system within a Hub/Co-Op, Financial management issues, Human resources issues, General management skills, Marketing.

Training Objectives

The primary objective of any program should be to train individuals to become competent Aquaculture Technicians by developing the skills required, through instruction and practical on the job experience.

Once fully trained, individuals would be equipped to;

1. Obtain employment within the Aquaculture industry
2. Progress and advance into farm management positions
3. Obtain employment in fish processing operations
4. Evaluate and/or develop self employment within the industry

The training program as outlined above would ideally be 16 – 20 weeks in duration.  Depending upon the objectives of a selected training program, there could be many possible variations of the above, in both content and duration.