Labour in the dairy industry continues to be a hot topic. In 2016, a report published by Teagasc concluded that 6,000 workers were needed on dairy farms by 2025.
That report, headed by Paidi Kelly of Teagasc, was conducted in response to growing labour requirements in the expanding industry.
Numerous national initiatives are currently underway by the organisation to encourage a growth in numbers o0f people available to work in the sector. But a European-funded initiative is targeting secondary school students in a bid to attract more people to pursue a career in the dairy industry.
NEFERTITI
The European programme launched in Ireland, focuses on promoting dairy farming as an attractive career path.
The ‘Farm Attractiveness; You Can Farm’ programme is part of the EU Horizon 2020 project called NEFERTITI: Networking European Farms to Enhance Cross Fertilisation and Innovation Uptake Through Demonstration.
The NEFERTITI project is divided into 10 themes with each theme focusing on a concern with the farming and rural communities of Europe. In total, there are 32 partners involved in the project across 17 countries. The total cost of the funding from the EU is €7m across the project, with the level of investment in each partner varying depending on their level of involvement.
‘Farm Attractiveness’ and Teagasc
The “Farm Attractiveness” theme looks at the difficulty in attracting workers into agriculture and focuses on ways to counteract this. Ireland is one of just six countries focusing on this theme, with the UK, Croatia, Hungary, France and Germany making up the balance. Project advisor in Teagasc Redmond McEvoy is leading this project in Ireland.
“Our target audience is secondary school students and the parents of students and our target sector is the dairy industry,” Redmond told Irish Country Living.
“We are trying to get the message out there to students, from a farming and non-farming background, that dairy farming is a viable and rewarding career path. You are your own boss and there is the potential to achieve a great income from dairy farming across Ireland.
“We want secondary school students and their parents to be aware that this is an outdoor, healthy lifestyle and there are opportunities out there on dairy farms at the moment. The theme also hopes to demonstrate alternative ways to become a farmer and newer career paths to be involved in farming both full and part time.”
The opportunities Redmond speaks of are in reference to the aforementioned report, outlining the number of jobs required across dairy farms throughout Ireland.
Encouraging students into farming
A requirement of the initiative is that a number of meetings and open days must take place each year of the programme. This is already underway with number of pilot farm demonstrations taking place in May.
One such on-farm demonstration took place on Wednesday 16 May on the farm of Nuffield scholar Karol Kissane. This event saw 150 secondary school students from the surrounding areas invited to the farm.
The idea is to make the farm visit as practical as possible for secondary school students, including live AI demonstrations, grading body condition score on cattle and weighing cows.
Students will also get visual demonstrations on how much cattle eat as well as the process of milking.
Finally, students will get a general view of the industry. The idea is that more on-farm demonstrations will take place at the end of this year. At the moment, the on-farm demos are invite only, however this process will be reviewed as the programme progresses.
The programme
The programme itself will run over a four-year period. Provisional planning took place in mid-2018, before the wheels began to spin on the initiative in October 2018. The design of the Irish side of the project was conjured by a series of meeting with stakeholders, including IASTA, Agri Aware, Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture, that took place in January 2019.
“For us, it is early stages of the project. We are focusing on dairy farming for now but we are open to going into other enterprises in the future. It is trial and error but we are trying to establish what works and what doesn’t. We want to walk before we can run,” Redmond explains.
The Farm Attractiveness theme is to run until December 2021.
The objectives of the on-farm demonstrations are to:
Promote dairy farming as a positive career.Demonstrate different pathways to become a dairy farmer.Increase students overall knowledge of dairy farming.
What is the programme?
The programme is conducted by Teagasc and aims to educate secondary school students and their parents about the prospects of dairy farming, and to encourage them to pursue a career in the sector.
Labour in the dairy industry continues to be a hot topic. In 2016, a report published by Teagasc concluded that 6,000 workers were needed on dairy farms by 2025.
That report, headed by Paidi Kelly of Teagasc, was conducted in response to growing labour requirements in the expanding industry.
Numerous national initiatives are currently underway by the organisation to encourage a growth in numbers o0f people available to work in the sector. But a European-funded initiative is targeting secondary school students in a bid to attract more people to pursue a career in the dairy industry.
NEFERTITI
The European programme launched in Ireland, focuses on promoting dairy farming as an attractive career path.
The ‘Farm Attractiveness; You Can Farm’ programme is part of the EU Horizon 2020 project called NEFERTITI: Networking European Farms to Enhance Cross Fertilisation and Innovation Uptake Through Demonstration.
The NEFERTITI project is divided into 10 themes with each theme focusing on a concern with the farming and rural communities of Europe. In total, there are 32 partners involved in the project across 17 countries. The total cost of the funding from the EU is €7m across the project, with the level of investment in each partner varying depending on their level of involvement.
‘Farm Attractiveness’ and Teagasc
The “Farm Attractiveness” theme looks at the difficulty in attracting workers into agriculture and focuses on ways to counteract this. Ireland is one of just six countries focusing on this theme, with the UK, Croatia, Hungary, France and Germany making up the balance. Project advisor in Teagasc Redmond McEvoy is leading this project in Ireland.
“Our target audience is secondary school students and the parents of students and our target sector is the dairy industry,” Redmond told Irish Country Living.
“We are trying to get the message out there to students, from a farming and non-farming background, that dairy farming is a viable and rewarding career path. You are your own boss and there is the potential to achieve a great income from dairy farming across Ireland.
“We want secondary school students and their parents to be aware that this is an outdoor, healthy lifestyle and there are opportunities out there on dairy farms at the moment. The theme also hopes to demonstrate alternative ways to become a farmer and newer career paths to be involved in farming both full and part time.”
The opportunities Redmond speaks of are in reference to the aforementioned report, outlining the number of jobs required across dairy farms throughout Ireland.
Encouraging students into farming
A requirement of the initiative is that a number of meetings and open days must take place each year of the programme. This is already underway with number of pilot farm demonstrations taking place in May.
One such on-farm demonstration took place on Wednesday 16 May on the farm of Nuffield scholar Karol Kissane. This event saw 150 secondary school students from the surrounding areas invited to the farm.
The idea is to make the farm visit as practical as possible for secondary school students, including live AI demonstrations, grading body condition score on cattle and weighing cows.
Students will also get visual demonstrations on how much cattle eat as well as the process of milking.
Finally, students will get a general view of the industry. The idea is that more on-farm demonstrations will take place at the end of this year. At the moment, the on-farm demos are invite only, however this process will be reviewed as the programme progresses.
The programme
The programme itself will run over a four-year period. Provisional planning took place in mid-2018, before the wheels began to spin on the initiative in October 2018. The design of the Irish side of the project was conjured by a series of meeting with stakeholders, including IASTA, Agri Aware, Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture, that took place in January 2019.
“For us, it is early stages of the project. We are focusing on dairy farming for now but we are open to going into other enterprises in the future. It is trial and error but we are trying to establish what works and what doesn’t. We want to walk before we can run,” Redmond explains.
The Farm Attractiveness theme is to run until December 2021.
The objectives of the on-farm demonstrations are to:
Promote dairy farming as a positive career.Demonstrate different pathways to become a dairy farmer.Increase students overall knowledge of dairy farming.
What is the programme?
The programme is conducted by Teagasc and aims to educate secondary school students and their parents about the prospects of dairy farming, and to encourage them to pursue a career in the sector.
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