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F A R M S K I L L S
Sophie Throup
FarmSkills Manager
FarmSkills training is reaching out to a wide audience across the country, becoming
part of many herd health plans and staff development on farm. We look at a
number of recent workshops which have had local impact. Many of our workshops
are partly funded with RDPE support from DEFRA and the EU which helps lower the
cost of the overall workshop to farmers.
The Next
Steps...
Duncan Gaudie & Iain McCulloch
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
17
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
Jo Bates
Scott Mitchell Associates
The most recent FarmSkills training workshop
at Scott Mitchell Associates was entitled
‘Beef Basics’. It was aimed at younger
members of the farming community and
those farmers wanting to review their skills;
ultimately a mixture of delegates attended -
three farmers’ sons, two more experienced
farmers, a farmer’s girlfriend and a farming
apprentice. We covered the legal aspects
and theory of disbudding/dehorning,
castration of calves and injection techniques
for intramuscular, intravenous and
sub-cutaneous injections. The practical
aspects of the course involved disbudding six
calves and consideration of the appropriate
method of castrating the bull calves.
We also visited Hexham Auction Mart and
estimated the weight of approximately fifteen
cull cows and fat cattle that were being sold
that day - discovering their exact weights
when they were sold. All delegates except
one underestimated the weight of the adult
cows by 100kg+. It was a valuable exercise
in understanding the inaccuracy of weight
estimation and we went on to discuss
the implications of this with regard to
medicine dosage.
All feedback that we had from the day has
been very positive; one delegate commented
that
‘the course was fantastic!’
It was
refreshing to have a number of younger
farmers in the audience with their associated
enthusiasm - it seems we have also created
some discussion on-farm when they have
gone back home and explained correct
techniques to their fathers. All-in-all a good
day was had by both trainees and trainers.
FARMSKILLS
NORTH EAST