Of the 60 credits awarded in third year of the animal science route of an agricultural science degree in UCD, 12 are for your professional work experience. This is a core fundamental of the degree and gives students an invaluable opportunity to work across the different types of animal production that we have in this country.
I didn’t come from a pig farm and people often ask me how I ended up pursuing a career in pig production, and dedicating the best part of 13 years of my life to it between my master’s and working in the IFA looking after the interests of this sector. It was down to my work experience. A pig farm was the last one I worked on after I had completed my time in sheep, beef and dairy. And it was the one that I stayed on the longest for a number of reasons.
Firstly, I was very lucky to get a place working on one of the most dynamic and forward-thinking pig farms in the country. But also it was the way the business was run: efficiency, staff morale and technology to the fore. There are students that try to avoid the pig farm experience, I know this, and I have always said that this is a massive mistake. Why? Because, and I have had this conversation hundreds of times, working on a pig farm will prepare you for the future in your own farm business. The challenges in our industry at large – public perception, environmental compliance, world market prices and volatility – these are all issues that pig farmers have dealt with for decades. As there is no direct support, world market prices are what sets the profitability or loss levels on farms, and being at the top of your game and expansion are what keeps farmers going. If we are honest, and we have seen it in our dairy sector, expansion is inevitable and so are the unwarranted negative connotations that come with that.
Over the years I travelled to many pig farms around the world with the chief executive of the National Pig Association (NPA), Zoe Davies. We would often talk about the animal rights protestors that were a mainstay of her work in the UK. I was always glad that this had not come to our shores – but with over 40 protestors invading a Westmeath pig farm recently, it is now our reality as well.
This comes at a time when the entire world is on high alert for African swine fever, a virus, which although has no human health impact, would bring complete devastation to our pig industry. You often hear people whose houses have been burgled say that it is the invasion of privacy that stays with them, that psychological trauma. This is what it must feel like for these farmers, good farmers, who are doing everything to the letter of the law, paying into Bord Bia for promotion and Teagasc for advice, maintaining Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) licences and trying every day to keep their business afloat.
These are efficient businesses that compete head on with the best in the world. Now I am not suggesting that other farms are not run in the same manner, but I have seen that the challenges come first to the pig man’s door and ultimately get around to every other door in the village over time. It would be remiss of the industry to dismiss this as the pig farmer’s problem.
Read more
Animal rights activists - where do farmers stand legally?
Security a new concern for pig farmers after vegan invasion
Women in the headlines and Mercosur a red line for farmers
Of the 60 credits awarded in third year of the animal science route of an agricultural science degree in UCD, 12 are for your professional work experience. This is a core fundamental of the degree and gives students an invaluable opportunity to work across the different types of animal production that we have in this country.
I didn’t come from a pig farm and people often ask me how I ended up pursuing a career in pig production, and dedicating the best part of 13 years of my life to it between my master’s and working in the IFA looking after the interests of this sector. It was down to my work experience. A pig farm was the last one I worked on after I had completed my time in sheep, beef and dairy. And it was the one that I stayed on the longest for a number of reasons.
Firstly, I was very lucky to get a place working on one of the most dynamic and forward-thinking pig farms in the country. But also it was the way the business was run: efficiency, staff morale and technology to the fore. There are students that try to avoid the pig farm experience, I know this, and I have always said that this is a massive mistake. Why? Because, and I have had this conversation hundreds of times, working on a pig farm will prepare you for the future in your own farm business. The challenges in our industry at large – public perception, environmental compliance, world market prices and volatility – these are all issues that pig farmers have dealt with for decades. As there is no direct support, world market prices are what sets the profitability or loss levels on farms, and being at the top of your game and expansion are what keeps farmers going. If we are honest, and we have seen it in our dairy sector, expansion is inevitable and so are the unwarranted negative connotations that come with that.
Over the years I travelled to many pig farms around the world with the chief executive of the National Pig Association (NPA), Zoe Davies. We would often talk about the animal rights protestors that were a mainstay of her work in the UK. I was always glad that this had not come to our shores – but with over 40 protestors invading a Westmeath pig farm recently, it is now our reality as well.
This comes at a time when the entire world is on high alert for African swine fever, a virus, which although has no human health impact, would bring complete devastation to our pig industry. You often hear people whose houses have been burgled say that it is the invasion of privacy that stays with them, that psychological trauma. This is what it must feel like for these farmers, good farmers, who are doing everything to the letter of the law, paying into Bord Bia for promotion and Teagasc for advice, maintaining Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) licences and trying every day to keep their business afloat.
These are efficient businesses that compete head on with the best in the world. Now I am not suggesting that other farms are not run in the same manner, but I have seen that the challenges come first to the pig man’s door and ultimately get around to every other door in the village over time. It would be remiss of the industry to dismiss this as the pig farmer’s problem.
Read more
Animal rights activists - where do farmers stand legally?
Security a new concern for pig farmers after vegan invasion
Women in the headlines and Mercosur a red line for farmers
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