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William Butler Yeats was a city boy. However, luckily for him his mother was a Sligo woman and WB spent much of his childhood in the region now referred to as Yeats Country.
No doubt he was contemplating his spiritual home in the countryside and the need of the farmer to continually learn on the job when he coined the phrase education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
With such lofty thoughts in mind, I started my Green Cert a few weeks ago in Teagasc’s Kildalton campus. We grew up farmers at home, but with Yeats’s insight ringing in my ears, I decided further education and knowledge were needed if we are to make a success of the farm enterprise.
Non-agricultural degree holders
I have a degree already (in applied physics, no less) and so enrolled in the distance education option for non-agricultural degree holders.
It’s essentially a two-part course, comprising level five and level six certificates, and delivered on a part-time basis.
The on-site commitment is approximately one day per month for 16 months, two weeks in June of 2018 and 2019, and six half-days on various Saturdays for assessments. There’s also a weekly diary to be kept and plenty of bedtime reading provided to help study for the assessments.
All in all, it’s a hefty enough requirement on your time.
But I’m not going to complain for a second. You learn lots - despite what you think you already know - and you’re surrounded by a dozen other farmers going through the same process as yourself.
Ideas flow, the odd laugh creeps in and you build friendships that will last after the course finishes. In addition, you’ll have an official piece of paper saying you’re a trained farmer and allowing you to avail of various financial schemes.
In professional education circles, they say any good training experience should provide students with the three Cs: competences, contacts and certification. Two months into my Green Cert, I can safely say Kildalton is delivering the first two Cs. It’s up to me to put in the effort for assessments and come away with the third C.
Orf and rock salt
On the home front, all sheep have lambed now and we’re trying to put a difficult few months behind us.
Grass is still very scarce and we’ll be feeding concentrates to ewes for another week or two. The switch-over to creep-feeding lambs will take place then and the countdown will begin to weaning and selling.
Orf has emerged in a few lambs and we’ve been treating secondary infections around the mouth and nose with an antibiotic spray. Some of the most affected cases also got cobalt to address any vitamin deficiency that might be present.
So far, we’re just about ahead of it. Next year, we’ll aim to prevent rather than cure it. I’ve picked up a few ideas from classmates in Kildalton, such as putting rock salt blocks in troughs.
Perhaps there’s something to this education lark after all. The Sligoman, Yeats, would probably agree.
Kieran Sullivan and his brother farm part-time in Co Waterford. You can follow him on Twitter: @kieran_sullivan
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