The Irish Farmer’s Journal’s Peter Young was joined by a panel of people who explored the role of technology in modern agriculture.

Dr John Daly works as research and innovation manager with Dairymaster. John is the senior design engineer responsible for product development. His specific expertise is in milk cooling. He grew up on a dairy farm in Co Cavan and says that “growing up on a farm things were always breaking, so I was always exposed to it and intrigued by it and how machines work.” He says his dad used to help neighbours fix their dairy equipment too.

John always knew he wanted to do engineering but the question was, where should he study it? He decided on UL (mechanical engineering) because it included a co-op programme – at the time it was one of the few universities that had work experience incorporated into degree programmes. John also did a PhD in design optimisation, fluid dynamics and computational modelling with the University of Limerick part-time while working.

John’s advice to all young students is to find out what you love and what gives you a buzz. “Don’t be worried about the money because by the time you come out of college, those jobs could be gone.”

Michael King is from a dairy farm in north Kerry but unlike John, says he was always breaking things, rather than fixing them, on the farm. Michael is a senior lecturer at Innopharma Labs on the Level 9 MSc Masters in Food Business Management and Technology as well as the Level 6 and Level 8 food programmes. Innopharma Labs is an education and technology solutions provider to the pharmaceutical and food technology industries. The programmes it runs are fully accredited through QQI.

Martin is an accomplished Food Safety and Quality Assurance professional with an extensive background across the FMCG sector. He says that going to small- or medium-sized companies can be more beneficial than larger companies at the start of a career. “In big blue-chip companies, roles can sometimes be very narrow. If you’re with a smaller company, you’ll get experience in all different parts of the business. Focus on experience earlier in your career.”

Sean Coughlan is CEO of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF). He grew up on a dairy farm near Mitchelstown in Co Cork and studied commerce in UCC because he didn’t know what he wanted to do. He completed an MBA in International Business at St Joseph’s University Philadelphia, USA in 1995, and completed management accountant (CIMA) qualifications in 2007. Prior to joining ICBF, Sean spent seven years with Price Waterhouse Coopers and Anderson Consulting in the USA, Europe and Ireland. Sean has worked at ICBF since 2002 in roles including manager of information systems; in 2006, he became financial controller. Sean talked about data management during this session, and about the beef genomics scheme.

Read more

Full coverage: Agri Careers Fair