Vet students for lambing

sheepfarmer92

Hi there, I am just wondering has anyone on here experience of taking on vet students to assist with lambing? I would only need somebody for 3 or 4 weeks, like the idea of giving people experience. Have a late march lambing batch of 800 ewes to lamb so they would learn a lot about sheep!

stantheman1979

We took on one for yrs and generally found it a waste of time. I dunno where he got them but they generally sent us a girl(nothing wrong with that) from another country (weve had sweden denmark usa canada germany) who had no experience of sheep. By the time they could be useful ie stand in a gap without being afraid of the sheep, lambing was nearly over. The only thing we could do is get then to keep going around with a bottle topping up hungry lambs and bed a few individual pens. If you could get someone with an interest in sheep im sure it would be beneficial to both of you.

Murray007

Their is possibly a divergence of objectives in this. You are looking for free labour and they are looking for work experience. I am saying this from the perspective of having a suckler herd and also a son who is first year vet student. He knows nothing about sheep so why would you expect a work experience student to act as if they are experienced. If they had experience they wouldn't be free labour.

sheepfarmer92

Murray007 wrote: »

Their is possibly a divergence of objectives in this. You are looking for free labour and they are looking for work experience. I am saying this from the perspective of having a suckler herd and also a son who is first year vet student. He knows nothing about sheep so why would you expect a work experience student to act as if they are experienced. If they had experience they wouldn't be free labour.

If you read my post, you'll see that I never said anything about the student having to have experience just a wiliness to learn.

stantheman1979

Its not free labour!! Far from it!! Im sure there are plenty of students from dairy backgrounds who have none or little experience with sheep who would like and would need to work with sheep for a while. If they're going to become vets they gotta be able to treat ALL animals

sheepfarmer92

Students would be paid. Its just the ag students out of ballyhaise etc have a 12 week work placement which wouldn't suit here as only want some one for the few busy weeks during the day

sheepfarmer92

stantheman1979 wrote: »

Its not free labour!! Far from it!! Im sure there are plenty of students from dairy backgrounds who have none or little experience with sheep who would like and would need to work with sheep for a while. If they're going to become vets they gotta be able to treat ALL animals

Thank you stan, I think a lot of vet students and ag students would love to experience lambing, calving etc and I would never expect them to work for nothing

Murray007

Vet students will not be available in the March to June peak lambing season they are at college then.

stantheman1979

All u can ask for is someone to show willing and be prepared to roll up their sleeves and not give up. A few yrs ago a young lad from a nearby town came up to us looking for work. He had no experience of farming but was willing to learn. We had him doing simple but not too boring or strenous stuff and gradually gave him more responsibility, he loved it. By the end of the summer he was a good help to have around, he could drive the tractor and handle cattle and sheep and was a hard worker.