There are seven agricultural colleges in Ireland offering hands-on training to school leavers and young people interested in pursuing careers in agriculture. Moving north to south you have Greenmount in Antrim, which is run by CAFRE, Ballyhaise in Cavan, Mountbellew in Galway, Kildalton in Kilkenny, Gurteen in Tipperary, Pallaskenry in Limerick and Clonakilty in Cork.

Mountbellew, Gurteen and Pallaskenry are privately owned either by a religious order or a registered charity, but teaching staff are provided by Teagasc. There is currently a re-evaluation of the agricultural education curriculum taking place. A public consultation process has recently completed and the steering group, charged with proposing change, is expected to give a report early next year.

But what is the current state of play? At present, someone interested in acquiring an agricultural education can go down the third-level route, either through UCD or the Institutes of Technology (IT).

Most of the ITs have a link-up with an agricultural college to deliver the practical training elements. The alternative to the third-level route is to do the Green Cert or Level 5 Certificate in Agriculture. This is a one-year course with a broad outline and upon qualification students will be eligible to progress to the Level 6 Advanced Cert in dairy, drystock or crops, etc. It is only after students complete the Level 6 Advanced Cert that they are eligible for stamp duty exemption, stock relief, etc.

Greenmount

Greenmount College is Northern Ireland’s flagship agricultural college, where students can expect to learn all about higher input systems. A new dairy unit for 180 cows was opened in 2014 at a cost of €3m. The rolling average performance for the herd of 148 cows was 671kg milk solids (MS) per cow from 2.5t of meal. Milk from forage (which is a key performance indicator for CAFRE) was 4,102 litres. The replacement rate in 2015 was 19%. The average grass growth per hectare is 12t/ha. Greenmount has 120 students studying dedicated dairy courses.

Ballyhaise

Ten years ago, the management of Ballyhaise dairy unit was transferred to Moorepark. Since then, the dairy farm has become a satellite research unit under the guidance of Donal Patton and Brendan Horan.

The mostly crossbred herd (EBI €201) of 120 cows produced 410kg of milk solids per cow in 2015 from 550kg of meal. The empty rate after 12 weeks of breeding in 2015 was 7%. Just over 13.8t of grass was grown per hectare. There will be 15 students attending the Advanced Dairy Cert this year.

Mountbellew

For the last few years, there has been insufficient interest from students looking to study the Advanced Dairy Cert at Mountbellew.

A decision has been made to change the system of dairy farming, away from all year-round calving with high-volume Holstein Friesian cows towards higher EBI crossbred cows in a spring-calving system. Only Kiwi cross and Jersey bulls were used this year and the 90-cow herd is expected to calve in an 11-week period next spring. Last year, the farm grew 10t of grass per hectare.

Kildalton

This is Teagasc’s largest college and has seen the most investment in recent years. The herd of 112 spring-calving cows have an EBI of €196. Last year, the herd produced 469kg MS/cow from 720kg of meal.

The empty rate after 12 weeks of breeding was 6% and just over 12t of grass was grown per hectare. There are 39 students booked in for the Advanced Dairy Cert this year.

Gurteen

Gurteen is another dairy farm in transition. At the moment, 50 of the 160 cows are calving in the autumn but this is the last year of autumn-calving. From next year, the herd will be fully spring-calving.

Big expansion is planned at the college with the herd expected to increase to 240 high EBI cows.

Plans for new milking and housing facilities are in place. Last year, the herd produced 512kg MS/cow from 1.1t meal. The EBI is currently €150.

There was 17% of the herd empty after 12 weeks of breeding. The total grass growth in 2015 was 11t/ha. There have been 20 applications to the Advanced Dairy Cert this year.

Pallaskenry

Up to recently, Pallaskenry was running a high-input system not too dissimilar to that practised at Greenmount.

Recent changes have meant that the herd is now spring-calving and 50% are high EBI cows (over €200).

The remainder are what is left of the old herd but will be sold this winter and replaced with high EBI stock.

The plan at Pallaskenry is to increase cow numbers to around 350 cows in a simple, grass-based system.

New milking facilities will be required but the farm has 480 acres so land is not limiting.

Last year, the farm grew 12t/ha. There are 17 students booked in to the Advanced Dairy Cert this year.

Clonakilty

Much like Ballyhaise, the dairy unit at Clonakilty is under the control of Moorepark and is being used to research clover swards.

The 180-cow herd is all spring-calving and is high EBI (€187), with a mix of breeds.

Last year, over 17t of grass was grown on the grass and clover swards and the average performance in the herd was 480kg MS/cow from 350kg of meal. There are 33 students booked into the Advanced Dairy Cert this year.

Comment

Apart from Greenmount, there is a general convergence of farm systems at Irish agricultural colleges towards lower-cost, grass-based systems with the appropriate cows for such systems. This is a positive, but long-awaited trend. We know that students learn from exposure and interaction so the more they are exposed to profitable, simple and replicable systems the better.

But issues still persist. The level of automation on the college farms is high. Most of them have automatic cluster removers, automatic washing and electronic heat detection aids. Is this the best example to be setting to students? Are they going to learn the basic skills if there is a machine there to do it for them? Do they go home thinking they need this level of automation on their own farms?

The revision of the current syllabus cannot come fast enough. It is wholly inadequate. For example, students in the Advanced Dairy Cert do a work placement in autumn and are in the classroom in spring. There is too much of a focus, at nearly all levels of education towards fulfilling the qualification requirements of schemes and grants and not enough on the skills required to systematically turn out top-class young farmers. The skills shortfall is in managing cows, grass, people and money.

The new syllabus needs to refocus on the skills. I have seen at first hand students leave ag college without being proficient at the basics – giving injections, measuring and budgeting grass, joining a water pipe or putting up a temporary reel. Resources must be directed towards changing this and host farmers play a big role also.