4,000 students experience life on a working farm as part of Agri Aware series
Leaving Cert students visited Kilkenny’s Kildalton Agricultural College as part of nationwide programme
Agri Aware's Farm & Talk series allowed students to experience life on a working farm
Agri Aware has closed out its Farm Walk & Talk series at Kilkenny’s Kildalton Agricultural College, which brought the curtain down on the four week long event that allowed 4,000 students experience life on a working farm.
Agri Aware Farm Walk & Talk series saw over 4,000 students walk onto 11 different farms across 14 events from counties Donegal, down to Cork and over as far as Co Meath.
The talks and demonstrations covered topics related to the Leaving Cert Agriculture Science curriculum as students were given first-hand experience of what life is like on a working farm.
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Students over the course of the series got the opportunity to see ewes lambing and even gave a helping hand in the delivery of a lamb. Other interactive demonstrations included body condition scoring animals, taking a soil sample and milking a cow in a state-of-the-art rotary milking parlour.
The Farm Walk & Talk series was the first of Agri Aware’s in person events of the year which has received excellent feedback from students, teachers and all involved over the past four weeks.
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Agri Aware Chairman, Shay Galvin, said the event was a great success.
“It has been a fantastic few weeks on the road at our Farm Walk & Talk events. The series is always a major highlight of the Agri Aware calendar and this year was no different.
“Providing students with a real hands-on experience of what life is like on a working farm and providing some practical knowledge that puts what the students learn in the classroom into action is what is unique about these events, particularly for students who don’t come from farm or farming background.
“A big thank you to our event partners, Teagasc, the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, and the Irish Farmers Journal for their continued support in the organisation and running of these events. Also, we are very grateful to Peter Lynch and his family for opening their farm to students in Co Donegal, which was the first farm to host a Farm Walk & Talk event outside of our event partners."
Shay added: “We are very thankful to many our patrons who gave talks and demonstrations throughout the series at the various venues, which were very well received by teachers and students.
“Lastly, these events would not go ahead without students and their teachers who we owe the biggest thanks to for making all 14 events this year the success they were.”
