The Salesian Fathers opened Pallaskenry Agricultural College in 1920 and it started out with just 12 students that April, according to current principal Derek O’Donoghue.

“By September, there were over 100 students and now, nearly 100 years later, we have 680 students enrolled in agricultural training,” he explains.

Most recently, Derek notes the college saw a surge in numbers in 2015 when students enrolled to undertake their Green Cert to comply with new regulations.

Pallaskenry now works in partnership with the Limerick Institute of Technology and Teagasc to provide full- and part-time courses in agriculture and farm machinery or mechanisation. Level six degrees in dairy herd or drystock management and agricultural mechanisation are three of the stand-out courses that Pallaskenry offers. It also offer a higher certificate in agricultural mechanisation in conjunction with LIT.

Practicality

One of the best aspects of agricultural education in Pallaskenry is the value placed on practical experience. The college has identified the unrivalled ability of practical experience to prepare students for work in the agricultural industry.

“All courses are delivered through a blend of classroom theory and outdoor practical skills. This is typically a 60:40 split in favour of the outdoor practical instruction and the courses are very much hands-on,” Derek points out.

The college is well equipped to meet the needs of its students too and its mechanisation courses are unique to the Salesian Agricultural College.

The College Farm

Another major plus of education in Pallaskenry is access to the college’s farm. The college operates a fully commercial farm of 510 acres, all grassland, carrying the three main enterprises of dairy, beef and sheep.

The dairy herd is the largest of the agricultural colleges. It comprises of 250 spring-calving dairy cows and operates on the principle of producing milk from grazed grass in a cost-effective manner. The herd is ranked in the top 200 herds nationwide, with an estimated breeding index (EBI) of €123.

The sheep enterprise comprises of 150 mid-season lambing ewes, with the breeding emphasis on improving the replacement index of the flock. In keeping with Pallaskenry’s position as a centre of education for agriculture, “last year all ewes were bred by AI as part of the Sheep Ireland programme, using high replacement index Belclare rams,” O’Donoghue says.

The college aims to demonstrate best practice across all its activities, O’Donoghue says. “Studying with us allows you to see and use these technologies on a large commercial farm.”

Some examples of new technologies currently in use on the farm are MooMonitors for heat detection in cows, electronic plate meters for grass measurement, a portable Near Infrared Reflectance (NIR4) device designed to analyse forage in real-time and an automatic calf feeder.

Ultimately, O’Donoghue says “our core principle is to offer every student the best possible experience, that they will be best equipped to develop their career in agriculture, both personally and financially”.