I am a student at Queens University Belfast In the evenings and weekend I work on a large farm spreading compost/farmyard, slurry, fert. I have experience with mowing, bailing, raking, buckraking and carting. i also have done cultivation work such as ploughing, power harrowing and one passing.

In the summer of 2012 I went to the east midlands and worked on the The Co-operative Farm, Oadby Lodge in Leicester. On this farm i did a wide range of jobs carting rape and wheat, topping, power harrowing and got some experience of min till with a claas xerion with a 6m simba cultivator.

As I am not directly from a farm I spent all my childhood on my grandfather’s dairy farm. Then when I got my driving licence I stared relief milking for neighbours at the weekends. From then I have been milking on a farm with 550 cows being milked through a 20 point herring bone parlour. This takes 4.30 hours each milking and they operate a 3 times a day system. After milking I do yard tasks and husbandry such as dehorning, cows feet bedding dosing etc.

Through my NDA course there was a year work placement involved. I did this on a 450 cow farm with the herd split into spring and autumn calving being milked on 2 yards. This was the best year of my life, there was lots of work but that wasn’t a problem. On this farm I did all jobs such as milking, calf rearing, heifer and store cattle management, performance monitoring, diet feeding, tractor work and lots more. Allot of these jobs were done independent allot of the time which I enjoyed as I am a hardworking person who is self motivated to complete jobs to a high standard and have a very keen eye for detail.

While studying at college to get some spending money I work for a local farmer in the evenings. This is a small high performing herd with approximately 90 cows producing 11,000 litres per lactation. On this farm I milk and do general yard work.