The Green Cert is a topic that crops us in almost all farming households as something that needs to get done before a young farmer turns 35 in order to be exempt from stamp duty upon transfer of the family farm.

When students take the Green Cert, what they are actually studying is a Level 5 certificate – and that’s just year one. They must also complete a Level 6 award.

Most people hear the term Green Cert and automatically think agriculture, but what many don’t realise is there are several other courses that allow students to come away with this certificate. Horticulture, forestry and horsemanship are examples of courses that also have Green Cert status attached to them. These lesser-known options are particularly appealing to those needing Green Cert status but not intending to enter agriculture as a full-time career.

For many people, the home farm is not of sufficient size or production level to enable them to earn enough income to sustain a standard of living for themselves and their family.

In 2015, the Teagasc National Farm Survey found that 50% of farm households had off-farm employment. Many students now see these other courses as an opportunity to develop an alternative enterprise on the home farm or gain employment off the farm. They also see these courses as an alternative to mainstream agriculture that may suit them.

This is what Andrew Curry from Liscannor, Co Clare, did when he completed his Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horticulture at Teagasc Kildalton College in 2011.

Andrew comes from a drystock farming background, which he now runs. Andrew loves working on the land, but knew a future on the home farm was not going to produce enough income to provide him with a comfortable living in the future.

According to Andrew, there is merit in the old saying “killing two birds with the one stone”. This is what he felt he was doing when he began studying horticulture in 2009.

a new world of options

“I always had an interest in horticulture, as did previous generations of my family,” says Andrew.

It was this interest that led him to Kildalton. During his two years studying, Andrew learned the principles of horticulture and developed a keen interest in two areas: nursery stock production and landscaping.

He was awarded student of the year in 2010 and 2011. “I have always loved working with my hands and growing plants,” he says. “Completing my Green Cert through horticulture has given me more options for off-farm income than had I studied agriculture.”

As well as working the home farm, Andrew has developed his own landscaping business in Liscannor, Co Clare: Andrew Curry Landscaping & Garden Maintenance.

“I love working for myself, it allows me the flexibility to be on the farm when I need to be. There is also the fact that, with most small farms like my own, off-farm income is essential.”

Andrew does a variety of landscaping work, from designing, to construction and maintaining gardens. He also propagates a small amount of hedging and shrub plants on the home farm.

According to Andrew: “The Level 6 Certificate in horticulture has opened the door to many different industries to me. While studying at Kildalton, I also had the advantage of access to the college farm. I got to know the drystock students and would often talk to them and the lecturers about what they were studying,” he says. CL

>> Know the options

Teagasc provides a range of land-based courses in addition to agriculture. There are horticulture courses based at Kildalton College and at the College of Amenity Horticulture in Dublin. Equitation courses are available at Kildalton College, while forestry is available at Ballyhaise College, Co Cavan. The official course names are as follows:

  • • Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horticulture.
  • • Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Forestry.
  • • Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Stud Management.
  • • Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horsemanship.
  • There are other Level 7 courses in horticulture, forestry and equine which qualify, but check with Revenue and the Department of Agriculture before pursuing any of these routes.

    Open day

    Kildalton Horticultural College is holding an open day at 10am on Thursday 18 May. This event will showcase the wide variety of careers available through horticulture, the extensive horticultural facilities at Kildalton as well as the wide variety of collaborative work ongoing at the college with Teagasc Horticultural Development Department. Applications for any of these courses are made directly to the appropriate college by 26 May 2017. See www.teagasc.ie/education/teagasc-colleges/kildalton/ for more.

    Trees for the wood

    Máirtín Staunton, from Tourmakeady in Co Mayo, applied for the Level 5 Certificate in Forestry in Ballyhaise Agricultural College, Co Cavan, in 2013.

    Máirtín says he was always interested in forestry. “I wasn’t initially aware that by doing the second year in Forestry I could get the Green Cert qualification – but it was something I needed, so it was a real bonus,” says Máirtín.

    He now spends his spare time working on the home farm on a part-time basis, with sheep being the main enterprise.

    “The forestry skills I got on the course at Ballyhaise College have allowed me to travel and work in America and Canada for a year,” says Máirtín.

    He is back home in Mayo now and working with a regional tree care company Abbey Tree Services, providing all aspects of tree maintenance and removals for their customers as well as carrying out work for ESB Networks.

    Máirtín also enjoys spending time on the family farm.

    “I love what I do and, the way I see it, what would be the point of doing a qualification only in agriculture when I can get the skills and the knowledge in forestry to have another career and still have the opportunity to farm – with all the benefits of the Level 6 qualification,” he says.