Dear Miriam,

I am a farmer in my 50s and feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the pace of change, particularly at the moment with social distancing and a lot of services moving online. I know I’m lucky to be safe and well at the moment, and this is only a small issue in the scheme of things, but I’d like to get some advice still.

I’m not a technophobe as such. I can email, use DoneDeal and Google things on the computer. Last year, I got my first touchscreen phone and after some difficulties at first, I managed to get the hang of it, with a crash course from my children.

We were to fill out some form or other that I didn’t know where to find

But last week I got a text from my local farm advisor to say because of the coronavirus our farm walk for this month was not going ahead, naturally, and we were to have a conference call. I’ve never done one of those before, but that wasn’t the issue.

We were to fill out some form or other that I didn’t know where to find. Usually with discussion groups you get your homework either after a meeting or in the post. Then you submit it to your advisor in advance of the next meeting.

Surely there are other people in the same boat as me?

Eventually, I got one of my children to help me with it. But it got me thinking, surely there are other people in the same boat as me? I’m not a millennial, can I be expected to know how to do things? Where do you go to learn this?

I’m flat out farming, I don’t have a lot of time to be spending on it. But it would be good to up skill a little and stay connected at the moment.

Confused Farmer

Dear Confused Farmer,

I think a lot of people will be feeling the same as yourself as we are called on to use technology more and more now during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning to use various digital platforms and services can be frustrating, and of course, it is difficult asking people to do things they are unsure of.

Becoming competent in any new skill is exasperating without the correct guidance

But try to look at things positively, better to find a new way of conducting the discussion group than cancelling it altogether.

Becoming competent in any new skill is exasperating without the correct guidance. For example, take a dairy farm, imagine asking someone who has never milked to put cows through the parlour by themselves. Would they be able to do it? No, but could they do it if they were shown? Yes, and maybe they might need help and supervision for a while.

If you apply this to yourself, it is about getting the correct help, and of course practice.

You could write out a list of things you need to learn and get one of them to sit down with you at a designated time

With your children at home, it might be an idea to continue asking one of them. I know sometimes people don’t have a lot of patience when they are asked on the fly. You could write out a list of things you need to learn and get one of them to sit down with you at a designated time.

A lot of people won’t have children at home to show them at the moment, and they’ll have to resort to taking instructions over the phone as best they can.

I contacted Teagasc on this matter also.

It might be helpful to have a conversation with your facilitator too, and explain what you can or cannot do, maybe they can work around that

They said they are conscious of people’s access to broadband and the internet. And, with regard to access to information and knowledge transfer, they are using the Teagasc website, social media channels and webinars, but paper newsletters and other correspondence will continue to be posted out to farmer clients monthly and bimonthly, as they are trying to work with people taking into account all circumstances.

It might be helpful to have a conversation with your facilitator too, and explain what you can or cannot do, maybe they can work around that. Going forward, it might interest you to know, for when we can move freely again, that Education and Training Boards (ETB) across the country run a Skills for Work course specifically for farmers. It is free for eligible candidates and teaches farmers computer skills. The internet is proving to be extremely useful for staying in touch at the moment. So give it a try and get help.

Wishing you the best,

Miriam

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