College farm placement (home or abroad)

cowman

Hi any help greatly appreciated.

Im doing my green cert and will be going on my placement after xmas for 12 weeks from january to late april. Still undecided as to whather i should stay in the country or not. My perfect farm would be either a purebred suckler enterprise or a commercial suckler herd focused on using all maternal sires...anyone who has travelled abroad for this type of placement would you recommend it for pay, working hours, experience etc.? Also if I stay in the country im based in north kilkenny so any contact details or info on farmers in that area that take students would be great thanks!!!

hedgecutting eddie

cowman wrote: »

Hi any help greatly appreciated.

Im doing my green cert and will be going on my placement after xmas for 12 weeks from january to late april. Still undecided as to whather i should stay in the country or not. My perfect farm would be either a purebred suckler enterprise or a commercial suckler herd focused on using all maternal sires...anyone who has travelled abroad for this type of placement would you recommend it for pay, working hours, experience etc.? Also if I stay in the country im based in north kilkenny so any contact details or info on farmers in that area that take students would be great thanks!!!

i did mine in wexford was ok but if ur lookin for a large scale purebred herd u will have to head out foreign im sorry i didnt go to england u wud learn alot over in england they are 10 years ahead of us

irishh_bob

cowman wrote: »

Hi any help greatly appreciated.

Im doing my green cert and will be going on my placement after xmas for 12 weeks from january to late april. Still undecided as to whather i should stay in the country or not. My perfect farm would be either a purebred suckler enterprise or a commercial suckler herd focused on using all maternal sires...anyone who has travelled abroad for this type of placement would you recommend it for pay, working hours, experience etc.? Also if I stay in the country im based in north kilkenny so any contact details or info on farmers in that area that take students would be great thanks!!!

a lot of agri cert graduates do thier placement in new zealand but thier usually spent on dairy farms , never heard of anyone getting a placement on a suckler farm over there and january to april would be out of season , scotland might be an option but i couldnt see that being too exciting and the weather is worse than here

blue5000

Hey OP, most pedigree su herds here are small, part time farms. I'd suggest going abroad, perhaps France, or Scotland as already suggested.

cowman

Thanks for the replies...I have considered scotland already and brought it up with the lecturer but he says you getted dogged for the 12 weeks and get terrible pay in the uk...i know experience is the main thing to worry about over pay but i simply cant afford to travel if the pay is poor. is france a realistic option??
Thanks again!!:)

bob charles

just get as far away from your fathers thinking as possible, and probably his fathers thinking

cowman

bob charles wrote: »

just get as far away from your fathers thinking as possible, and probably his fathers thinking

considering we are dairy and tillage farmers at home i have that covered already!!:D

Bodacious

cowman wrote: »

Thanks for the replies...I have considered scotland already and brought it up with the lecturer but he says you getted dogged for the 12 weeks and get terrible pay in the uk...i know experience is the main thing to worry about over pay but i simply cant afford to travel if the pay is poor. is france a realistic option??
Thanks again!!:)

The money in Uk is grand fella, it's all governed by agricultural wages board or something like that, overtime rates agreed etc... I went to college in Uk and we all did the harvests to survive ... English farmers were bang on to work for and straight as a dye moneywise.

I did a gap year then in beef/ cereal farm in Ohio. Staff reshuffle the week before I landed so guy handed me 1400 head of cattle and told me to get on with it! Great experience but money wasn't great not a patch on UK harvest

cowman

Bodacious wrote: »

The money in Uk is grand fella, it's all governed by agricultural wages board or something like that, overtime rates agreed etc... I went to college in Uk and we all did the harvests to survive ... English farmers were bang on to work for and straight as a dye moneywise.

I did a gap year then in beef/ cereal farm in Ohio. Staff reshuffle the week before I landed so guy handed me 1400 head of cattle and told me to get on with it! Great experience but money wasn't great not a patch on UK harvest

I doubt the US is an option as the college has to approve the farm and it wud need a couple in the class to be heading over for them to bother approving one at all... Id love a big suckler farm, even a mixed dairy/beef one wud be ok, so long as Im working with something on four legs and not tyres!
I hear the Ardlea herd limousin herd in laois sometimes take students is this true does anyone know??:)

jerdee

i did my placement in scotland needed to get away from dairy lads all around me who took lads from colleges ...all work and some terible stories.
headed to a suckler and sheep farm hill in pentland hills another lad with me headed up tillage in forfar .it was a great experience and like previous poster a couple of years ahead of us due to scale....farm i was on was 3500acres with 700 grass rest hill only drawback was we were eight miles from pub and three miles from our neighbour....

hours normal
o/t was given in time off
farmer was grand (wife a wagon}

def go for it if ya can as some great shows to go to and marts etc also different ideas on rearing animals

jer

cowman

That sounds like an experience alrite! There is a friend in my class also interested and it would be ideal if their was a big farm that would take the two of us i wonder is their any big farm like this does anyone know???