Agricultural science degree

edwardkiley

hi

I am considering doing a degree in ag science in Ireland. I was just wondering what job opportunities this would give rise to and if its a good area to get into,will there be jobs in years down the line ? I am interested in jobs abroad as well.

thanks

carrollsno1

edwardkiley wrote: »

hi

I am considering doing a degree in ag science in Ireland. I was just wondering what job opportunities this would give rise to and if its a good area to get into,will there be jobs in years down the line ? I am interested in jobs abroad as well.

thanks

Plenty of opportunities worldwide similar to back home between farm management, agronomy, sales reps and farm work.
Lots of lads with ag qualifications driving the big machines in Sydney too at the minute, or so they tell everyone.

edwardkiley

is there visa problems when going to somewhere like australia for a job in agri?

einn32

edwardkiley wrote: »

is there visa problems when going to somewhere like australia for a job in agri?

No they can't get good farm labour

Jack0125

Did an agri degree....if your into Agriculture you will enjoy the course and meet others in the course who you will likely have a lot in common with...fantastic Craic.

I then switched focus after completing the degree as I didn’t fancy agri production jobs...

Don’t regret it because ultimately with a good degree in most fields you can move into different industries.

Do what your passionate about and you can make more pragmatic choices in later life

edwardkiley

Jack0125 wrote: »

Did an agri degree....if your into Agriculture you will enjoy the course and meet others in the course who you will likely have a lot in common with...fantastic Craic.

I then switched focus after completing the degree as I didn’t fancy agri production jobs...

Don’t regret it because ultimately with a good degree in most fields you can move into different industries.

Do what your passionate about and you can make more pragmatic choices in later life

what did most people in your course go on to do after?

Jack0125

edwardkiley wrote: »

what did most people in your course go on to do after?

Gardai, accountants, lecturers, PhD in genetics, engineers, vets, back farming, agri advisors, teagasc, banking, pharma, procurement, dept of agriculture, journalists, start own business, when we meet up we laugh about how diverse the jobs people got.

Enjoy your degree choice as what you want from a job will be much different in 3 or 4 years time.

Best of luck

davidk1394

Did a degree myself in WIT. Mighty craic, just keep up to date and hand in projects on time and your fine. I went to oz for a while onto a big dairy farm. Came home and then got a job offer to head to Saudi to those big dairy farms but I turned it down as I want to set up my own dairy farm here.

Seth Brundle

I did the B.Ag in UCD.
I worked in the industry for a while but drifted into IT (€€€).
Whilst most work in professional areas with an agricultural connection, I've met loads of Ags who also left and pursued careers elsewhere including gardai, etc. One client of mine had set up a recruitment agency.
The UCD degree was broad and quite educational in terms of covering the science side but also giving me an education into finance and advertising. It definitley helped broaden my horizons.

edwardkiley

davidk1394 wrote: »

Did a degree myself in WIT. Mighty craic, just keep up to date and hand in projects on time and your fine. I went to oz for a while onto a big dairy farm. Came home and then got a job offer to head to Saudi to those big dairy farms but I turned it down as I want to set up my own dairy farm here.

besides new zealand, australia and saudi arabia where else can you go with an ag science degree and get a job fairly easy ?

do you have your own land ? and if not how are you going to set up your own farm here?

are there much jobs in tillage/food production for people with ag science degrees. most people with ag science degrees who go into farming after nearly always go into beef/dairy?

edwardkiley

Seth Brundle wrote: »

I did the B.Ag in UCD.
I worked in the industry for a while but drifted into IT (€€€).
Whilst most work in professional areas with an agricultural connection, I've met loads of Ags who also left and pursued careers elsewhere including gardai, etc. One client of mine had set up a recruitment agency.
The UCD degree was broad and quite educational in terms of covering the science side but also giving me an education into finance and advertising. It definitley helped broaden my horizons.

The broadness of the degree is quite unattractive to me. its so general that it doesnt make you a specialist in any one area and this makes it less attractive for employers to employ you it seems because you dont have the skills.

for example if you just did a general engineering degree it would be harm your job prospects and you would not be useful/employable in todays world. thats why everyone chooses a particular area e.g electrical,mechanical etc

yosemitesam1

edwardkiley wrote: »

The broadness of the degree is quite unattractive to me. its so general that it doesnt make you a specialist in any one area and this makes it less attractive for employers to employ you it seems because you dont have the skills.

for example if you just did a general engineering degree it would be harm your job prospects and you would not be useful/employable in todays world. thats why everyone chooses a particular area e.g electrical,mechanical etc

Whatever you'd be doing after an ag degree would benefit from as wide a knowledge as possible. There's nothing terribly difficult just lots of stuff to remember. Overspecialization and not being aware of the big picture is the worst thing you could do.

Do you want to actually work on a farm or just be involved in the agri sector?

edwardkiley

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Whatever you'd be doing after an ag degree would benefit from as wide a knowledge as possible. There's nothing terribly difficult just lots of stuff to remember. Overspecialization and not being aware of the big picture is the worst thing you could do.

Do you want to actually work on a farm or just be involved in the agri sector?

your usefulness as a employee depends on your skill set and your productivity of a good/service.

a GP gets paid less than a specialist medical consultant

specialists skills are valued more.

I would be interested in working on a farm as a manager but a lot of the farm manager positions pay poorly even though they require a third level qualification and experience. you would have the skills from an irish ag science degree to be a dairy farm manager but you would not have the skills to be a arable crop manager I dont think.

Waffletraktor

An ag degree opens the door to more options than most other's i would almost say. There is no industry you'll get a decent job without a few years experience on the shop floor so to speak or in further education and once you've an idea what that is if in ag you specialise in on it.
You'll get a job anywhere if you want to learn the local language with an ag degree except maybe doing agronomy on banana's in a polar environment.
If your at the stage you don't know what career is for you an ag degree sounds perfect, as you'll get a flavour of a number of other industries during studies and your work experience. If you do have an idea of what you want ask someone doing it what their career path was and you'll probably be supprised.

Waffletraktor

edwardkiley wrote: »

I would be interested in working on a farm as a manager but a lot of the farm manager positions pay poorly even though they require a third level qualification and experience. you would have the skills from an irish ag science degree to be a dairy farm manager but you would not have the skills to be a arable crop manager I dont think.

If you only have an ag degree you'll have a theoretical knowledge of a dairy farm management as you'd need experience developing the neccesary skills of stockmanship.
To be a crop manager learning enough to breeze through an iasis course and developing the practical knowledge of soil management and crop production skills such as judgeing ripeness of a crop or soil tilt for planting it.
Both are helped majorly by a degree but both require you to gain experience of the job also.

edwardkiley

Waffletraktor wrote: »

If you only have an ag degree you'll have a theoretical knowledge of a dairy farm management as you'd need experience developing the neccesary skills of stockmanship.
To be a crop manager learning enough to breeze through an iasis course and developing the practical knowledge of soil management and crop production skills such as judgeing ripeness of a crop or soil tilt for planting it.
Both are helped majorly by a degree but both require you to gain experience of the job also.

this might be a subjective question but would it be better to work on a dairy or crop farm in terms of pay and which is more enjoyable?

BTW i dont have a farming background and I wont be inheriting anything

Waffletraktor

edwardkiley wrote: »

this might be a subjective question but would it be better to work on a dairy or crop farm in terms of pay and which is more enjoyable?

BTW i dont have a farming background and I wont be inheriting anything

I'd do most of the work grand but never had stockman skills for livestock and detest the tedious boredom of dairy. (you pretty much are on call 24/7 to minding the cows) Wage generally comes with responsibility.
Not having a background doesn't mean you can't do it, though you will need to give it a try if the day to day on farm is for you.