College options for a keen lad.

He came home from college the other day and said he has enrolled for the next year, which we are pleased about.

As said, there is no way he’s going to move on to a degree in a years time, but we’re wondering if there may be a course to further his knowledge in something he’s keen to do.

We are contractors here and he’s had an inkling for a couple of years he would like to get into offering a spraying service.

There’s a lot to consider in doing that. He’s going to need to get some experience and that’s probably best done on an arable farm somewhere. I think it’s doubtful anybody is going to seriously consider him taking on their work when he’s fresh out of college.

Does anybody know of a one year course he could attend to give him technical knowledge of the chemistry, weeds, diseases and practical side of crop protection? Not a BASIS degree, but a kind of halfway house. He doesn’t want to be an agronomist or even advise farmers at all in any way, but I think if he’s going to be doing the job he will need to know what he’s doing and why he’s doing it, not just be a sprayer jockey.

Perhaps a crop production course of some sort? I think he would quite enjoy that sort of a course.
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
He came home from college the other day and said he has enrolled for the next year, which we are pleased about.

As said, there is no way he’s going to move on to a degree in a years time, but we’re wondering if there may be a course to further his knowledge in something he’s keen to do.

We are contractors here and he’s had an inkling for a couple of years he would like to get into offering a spraying service.

There’s a lot to consider in doing that. He’s going to need to get some experience and that’s probably best done on an arable farm somewhere. I think it’s doubtful anybody is going to seriously consider him taking on their work when he’s fresh out of college.

Does anybody know of a one year course he could attend to give him technical knowledge of the chemistry, weeds, diseases and practical side of crop protection? Not a BASIS degree, but a kind of halfway house. He doesn’t want to be an agronomist or even advise farmers at all in any way, but I think if he’s going to be doing the job he will need to know what he’s doing and why he’s doing it, not just be a sprayer jockey.

Perhaps a crop production course of some sort? I think he would quite enjoy that sort of a course.
I'm pretty sure that Hutchinson's do an apprenticeship and I bet others do, that would be more agronomy than application. If he wants to go down the application route, if he gets PA 1 and 2 minimum, I would think there will be a load of farmers prepared to give him a chance as spare sprayer driver, let's face it the hours are horrible, and gfw
 
I spent a season helping a local spraying contractor out years ago. It was interesting and enjoyable but I didn’t really have much of a clue what all the products were doing.

I just think if you’re offering a service and you expect to be paid a decent rate you should do your best to be as knowledgeable as you can. That’s the whole reason I took my FACTS qualification. I don’t really care that I have the piece of paper, what’s important is that I have the knowledge and, if I don’t, I know where to find it.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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