I was told I cant farm without. .

NewBeefFarmer

Some sort of course done.
Green card thingy or that i have a part time course or something. A friend told me, not in farming ill add.

Im dry stock all the way as i work 39 hrs a week.

I was like a course, so i can buy a few cattle, fatten and factory them? I said ur mad.

Herd No not in my name yet, will move it soon, but dont know is it better to transfer the existing one or get a new one.

But ya course.
Is this right?

Newbeeffarmer

reilig

Its wrong. You won't need to do a course.

It will be a lot easier for you to have the existing herd number transferred to you than to get a new one.

NewBeefFarmer wrote: »

Some sort of course done.
Green card thingy or that i have a part time course or something. A friend told me, not in farming ill add.

Im dry stock all the way as i work 39 hrs a week.

I was like a course, so i can buy a few cattle, fatten and factory them? I said ur mad.

Herd No not in my name yet, will move it soon, but dont know is it better to transfer the existing one or get a new one.

But ya course.
Is this right?

Newbeeffarmer

ihatetractors

Only worth while if your 35 or under, for tax purposes realy.?

JohnBoy

ihatetractors wrote: »

Only worth while if your 35 or under, for tax purposes realy.?

well it is possible you might learn something too like

LK_Dave

I did the classroom 150hr (green card) course a couple of years ago while working a day job. Had to pool all my holidays together and complete the course over two years. A real pain in the neck. At the time they were talking about having this course online, did anything come of that?

cjpm

LK_Dave wrote: »

I did the classroom 150hr (green card) course a couple of years ago while working a day job. Had to pool all my holidays together and complete the course over two years. A real pain in the neck. At the time they were talking about having this course online, did anything come of that?

It went online and is currently an even bigger pain in the neck.

Need about 20 days in Ag college as well as online material too.

nashmach

cjpm wrote: »

It went online and is currently an even bigger pain in the neck.

Need about 20 days in Ag college as well as online material too.

I'll second that. Not easy at all and I am off-farm 5 days a week.

Might be okay if you have a strict 9-5 but for me my time is being eaten up fast with it.

Ask me again 10 months.......

cjpm

nashmach wrote: »

I'll second that. Not easy at all and I am off-farm 5 days a week.

Might be okay if you have a strict 9-5 but for me my time is being eaten up fast with it.

Ask me again 10 months.......

The first year to do it had it very handy, i don't know if they even had to attend college, if they did it was only a few days.

I heard that a few people with no real farming background started to do it for tax reasons. Hence it was tightened up and made more difficult.

Every year since they've been adding extra days and making it harder. It's a joke to call it online now, there are so many college days. You'd want a very flexible job and plenty of holidays.

reilig

cjpm wrote: »

The first year to do it had it very handy, i don't know if they even had to attend college, if they did it was only a few days.

I heard that a few people with no real farming background started to do it for tax reasons. Hence it was tightened up and made more difficult.

Every year since they've been adding extra days and making it harder. It's a joke to call it online now, there are so many college days. You'd want a very flexible job and plenty of holidays.

I had to spend 4 days in ag college for it. There's a college 40 miles from me from where they were running it but they made people from our side of the country travel 110 miles to a different college for some strange reason.

There were 3 people out of the 20 of us who were solicitors and they openly admitted that they were doing it for tax purposes.

I never gained financially out of it - I had intended to draw the installation aid to put the foundations in my house and I had hoped to get higher grants from the FWMS. When I applied for the course, they took my herd number and PPS number and stuff and told me that i would qualify for both of the above. On the last day of the course, the tutor took me aside to tell me that I wasn't going to be eligable for either because I had my herd number for more than 1 year. You had to be a new herd number applicant to qualify. I had mine for 8 years previous to this.

€2k down the drain. I did gain some knowledge but not €2k's worth and coming home from the last day in the ag college a dumb ass ran up the arse of my brand new car and wrote it off - i only had it 2 weeks :mad:

nashmach

cjpm wrote: »

The first year to do it had it very handy, i don't know if they even had to attend college, if they did it was only a few days.

I heard that a few people with no real farming background started to do it for tax reasons. Hence it was tightened up and made more difficult.

Every year since they've been adding extra days and making it harder. It's a joke to call it online now, there are so many college days. You'd want a very flexible job and plenty of holidays.

About half way there now, college is based on home address. Lots of evening exams so I have had to leave work early, drive 150kms, exam for an hour and then get back and drive another 150kms. And then face another days work. Often left work at 4pm and didn't hit the bed until 12pm on those days.

Practical days (only had a few so far) but think there are around 15. And it is not 9-5 either more like 8.30 until 6 and longer if you have repeat exams to do.

Lots that are doing are doing it for the tax, at this stage I'd doubt it is worth the 2.3k I have spent on it.

Luckily due to other reasons I built up a holiday bank last year and once my employers know the days well in advance it is okay although of course at some busy times you have to go to the college. Luckily also my employers are flexible enough for the few hours off I need.

If you were working and had to farm each evening it would be very tough going.

johngalway

Reckon courses are a good thing, but if you're running a farm I think it's quite unsuitable for lads to have to do a lot of classroom hours. With the technology available now it's not unrealistic to be able to have a lot of the information available online like the Blackboard website NUI has. DVD's could be produced with demonstrations of various things. That would greatly lessen the traveling, expense, and time away from the farm that people would have to endure.

JohnBoy

cjpm wrote: »

The first year to do it had it very handy, i don't know if they even had to attend college, if they did it was only a few days.

I heard that a few people with no real farming background started to do it for tax reasons. Hence it was tightened up and made more difficult.

Every year since they've been adding extra days and making it harder. It's a joke to call it online now, there are so many college days. You'd want a very flexible job and plenty of holidays.

I was one of those early ones.

I think they ran it three times in it's original format, and yeah to be honest it was an absolute piece of piss.

I come a farming background as opposed to having actually grown up on a farm so would have known the basics but did learn from it, and maybe more importantly got the textbooks which are occasionally handy to look up.

There were maybe 15 in my group, four were doing it purely for tax reasons with no plans to ever so much as get dirty. one girl was taking it further, she was doing it so she could claim installation aid for her brother, in exchange for "the site"

Username John

JohnBoy wrote: »

I was one of those early ones.

I think they ran it three times in it's original format, and yeah to be honest it was an absolute piece of piss.

I come a farming background as opposed to having actually grown up on a farm so would have known the basics but did learn from it, and maybe more importantly got the textbooks which are occasionally handy to look up.

There were maybe 15 in my group, four were doing it purely for tax reasons with no plans to ever so much as get dirty. one girl was taking it further, she was doing it so she could claim installation aid for her brother, in exchange for "the site"

I was one of the early ones too.

Maybe in 2003 or so, cant rightly remember now. I think it was the second year it was run.

To be honest - there was a definite feel that it was being done for the tax incentives, as opposed to knowledge.
The amount I learned wasnt much, which surprised me. As I didnt know a whole pile starting off...
There was one bit on grass management all right which I think was good. But that was the one book I f'ecking cant find now acourse...

So I take it you didnt do it in Ballyhaise then Reilg? I did mine up there, as was working in Dublin at the time. Plus the missus is from Cavan, so headed up there after the few course days I had.

NewBeefFarmer

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa:rolleyes:

Im just going to skip this whole part of the farming section and jump straight in and go fencing tomorrow

Ill, probably screw up a few staples with not hitting them straight with the hammer, but then again, so would my dad have, and my grand-dad, and my grand-dads dad.

I'm working in a professional enviornment and all i can say is doing exams and courses, while it stood me well, does nothing to prepare you for real life.

Thanks anyway,
great responses as usual, which is fast tracking me to farming:pac:

NewBeefFarmer

munkus

Guys,

Just got the offer for the online course in the door this evening, need to reply by next Friday to accept/reject. Hoped it wouldn't be a waste of 2K. For the people who have/are attended, how much time a week needs to be spent on the revision/study for someone used to farming?

Munkus

nashmach

munkus wrote: »

Guys,

Just got the offer for the online course in the door this evening, need to reply by next Friday to accept/reject. Hoped it wouldn't be a waste of 2K. For the people who have/are attended, how much time a week needs to be spent on the revision/study for someone used to farming?

Munkus

For the tax benefit it isn't a waste if you are inheriting the land before you are 35 years of age.

It does not matter how used to farming you are, you need to learn what is in the book and not what you know to pass.

Luckily enough I bring the book on my commute to the day job so that is probably 3 hours a week and maybe an hour a night but I probably over study to be fair.

There are other assignments that need attention too and don't forget the weekly log that takes time but with a well organised cheque book and invoice file as well as hands on on the home farm should be 10 minutes a week (at least that is what I find).

All my own experience. 6 months in!

newmug

reilig wrote: »

I had to spend 4 days in ag college for it. There's a college 40 miles from me from where they were running it but they made people from our side of the country travel 110 miles to a different college for some strange reason.

There were 3 people out of the 20 of us who were solicitors and they openly admitted that they were doing it for tax purposes.

I never gained financially out of it - I had intended to draw the installation aid to put the foundations in my house and I had hoped to get higher grants from the FWMS. When I applied for the course, they took my herd number and PPS number and stuff and told me that i would qualify for both of the above. On the last day of the course, the tutor took me aside to tell me that I wasn't going to be eligable for either because I had my herd number for more than 1 year. You had to be a new herd number applicant to qualify. I had mine for 8 years previous to this.

€2k down the drain. I did gain some knowledge but not €2k's worth and coming home from the last day in the ag college a dumb ass ran up the arse of my brand new car and wrote it off - i only had it 2 weeks :mad:

I dont get this, solicitors becoming farmers to dodge tax? Where's the tax benefit? I'm from a farming background and I've never heard of this!

Also, would you have to do this to become a vet? Anyone know a handy way into the vet end of things for a mature student?

Bloody hell, that was harsh with your car Reilig!

keep going

its to do with allowances for tax when you are transfering property