Learning from home ag courses

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
Looking for ideas for some short course online learning for an apprentice. He has a few weeks off work and is open to using some of the time to learn.

My first thought was FACTS but he’s only been with us 7 months, so maybe a bit too much in at the deep end. He is on a modern apprenticeship, so there is a college course he’s already on, but it’s not exactly challenging, he’s a bright lad and has basically completed the 12month course in 6 months.

We’re a cereal and veg farm, and I’m interested in learning more on the soil/plant health side as we’ve been pretty neglectful to our land with our past intensive cropping, also we need to be less reliant on bagged and canned inputs, so this is an area I’d like to steer learning towards. We have grown, under guidance, a (healthy, viable, good yield potential) crop this year with no bagged N, P or K, so there is another way and it works. I remember at Groundswell there were various learning opportunities on offer in this vein, but I’ve forgotten most of what I saw. 🙄

Also, I’m a bit of a dinosaur regarding smart technology and how it can improve what we do. We’ve 2 rtk guidance systems and an agleader in the sprayer but I’m not utilising them to the full potential because I’m not very good with them. I’d love to sit at the computer and plan things more scientifically, and make things easier for the operators as a result, but what we do now works, and I’m not convinced the effort of setting up a load of clever computer stuff would be rewarded, plus I’d probably balls it up and revert to paper anyway. Apprentice is of the smart tech generation so would possibly be quicker to pick stuff up and help me figure out how to best improve what we do What do others think? How would you get him learning about utilising the tech on offer when not at trade events, or on the farm, or having much experience in farming bar the last 7 months?….,. Bit of a difficult question worded badly now I read it back….,

Any suggestions gratefully received.

thanks
 
Hi I would of been interested in some responses to this myself. Did you ever come up with a plan to help the lads learning? I myself grew up on a farm have just got back into agriculture this year at 28 after having different jobs since leaving school (realised my mistake in not going for it out of school) Got a job with a spraying contractor at the start of the year who put me through my spraying tickets. I want to expand my knowledge across the board in the coming years. Finding ways to learn or people who want to teach has proven a challenge. Thanks
 

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
Hi I would of been interested in some responses to this myself. Did you ever come up with a plan to help the lads learning? I myself grew up on a farm have just got back into agriculture this year at 28 after having different jobs since leaving school (realised my mistake in not going for it out of school) Got a job with a spraying contractor at the start of the year who put me through my spraying tickets. I want to expand my knowledge across the board in the coming years. Finding ways to learn or people who want to teach has proven a challenge. Thanks
No responses!

There’s some online courses from acs


And that’s about as far as we’ve gotten. Sruc have some interesting msc offerings as well, but they’ll be more technical and perhaps a step too far at this point.
 
No responses!

There’s some online courses from acs


And that’s about as far as we’ve gotten. Sruc have some interesting msc offerings as well, but they’ll be more technical and perhaps a step too far at this point.
Thanks I will take a look into that. DD9 you must be quite close to me forfar/brechin myself grew up on a farm around here. How is harvest going? Was doing some roundup spraying this morning racing the rain. That will be everything soaked now lol
 

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
Thanks I will take a look into that. DD9 you must be quite close to me forfar/brechin myself grew up on a farm around here. How is harvest going? Was doing some roundup spraying this morning racing the rain. That will be everything soaked now lol
Yeah, we’re in about potatoes just now, bit wet now but hopefully get going again tomorrow.

There was/is the modern apprenticeship scheme running, that’s what our guy is on. Might be a bit basic for your skill set, but there was no upper age limit to it, only the funding was targeted more at the sub 25yr olds. If it was me I would look into some specific short course distant learning on ag subjects you are interested in to broaden your knowledge base.

Be interest3d to know what you find
 
Yeah, we’re in about potatoes just now, bit wet now but hopefully get going again tomorrow.

There was/is the modern apprenticeship scheme running, that’s what our guy is on. Might be a bit basic for your skill set, but there was no upper age limit to it, only the funding was targeted more at the sub 25yr olds. If it was me I would look into some specific short course distant learning on ag subjects you are interested in to broaden your knowledge base.

Be interest3d to know what you find
I will keep you in the loop if I find something good. I would also like to learn more practical skills E.G welding general maintenance stuff would be handy. Not really something you can do from a distance though.
 

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
I will keep you in the loop if I find something good. I would also like to learn more practical skills E.G welding general maintenance stuff would be handy. Not really something you can do from a distance though.
Did MRAM at Warwickshire college many moons ago, look it up, it was/is an intensive 16 week course. One of the best things I’ve done.
 

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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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