Anyone get Green Cert or other Ag training for Small Holding? Also, over the age of 40.

psicic

Hi all, as in the title, anyone get the Green Cert or other Ag training, and did you find it useful on a small holding? I know the Green Cert is aimed at 'young farmers' with more of a commercial view, but would it be worth it for a small holding and especially if over the age of 40?

Just so that's not a question hanging in mid-air, a bit of background, back in 2010 - full of the bravado of youth - I got 18.5 acres and a rundown house at a decent price (not a bank sale - just no-one wanted to buy in the area) with every intention of quitting my job, moving down there full time and getting green cert. Used to browse this forum avidly when it first set up in 2011, bought John Seymour's self-sufficiency book and thought everything was falling together with all the schemes that seemed to becoming available!

Changing circumstances and having to meet the loan repayments meant I never got to move down and have been renting out my land for the past decade. House in complete disrepair, but am now in a position where my wife is ready to get things moving and get the place up and running for an eventual move. It'll still be a year or two before we could move down, and she'd be very eager to do something like the green cert to upskill. When I was under 35 the Green Cert seemed to make a lot of sense. Now we're over 40, I'd love to hear if anyone here has it, was it useful and are there any benefits/pitfalls to getting it?

We're not knee-deep in farming background - we wouldn't be completely naïve, but also are realistic that it's going to be a huge change and learning experience for us. I'll still be working remotely as broadband on the small holding is good enough, and our aim isn't to magic 18.5 acres of poor land on the Mayo/Roscommon border into some sort of self-sustaining commercial enterprise.

graememk

Not on a small holding, But done the Distance Green Cert (Need a Level 6 or higher in a non Agri qualification) But grew up and always worked on the farm, still do. [ https://www.teagasc.ie/education/courses/agriculture/teagasc-distance-education-green-cert/ ] about 10 yrs ago.

Most of the benefits are tax exemptions, and the young farmer grant, but now that you are over 35 most of them have passed/not relevant to you now anyway. [https://www.farmersjournal.ie/legal-when-is-it-worth-doing-the-green-cert-732742 ]

There is also part time courses run by teagasc.

The green cert would give you a good base knowledge of what way you should try and farm especially if you are quite new to it.

I found the distance cert re-covered a lot I done in Ag Science for the leaving cert for some of the technical stuff, and the rest was mostly what I knew from living it.

If not going down a green cert path, Do contact the local teagasc or even independent Agri advisors, I always found discussion groups quite useful, but some haven't got going again since the KT schemes stopped. (and covid)

If going into livestock, its would be hard to beat some hands on work with a larger farm especially at lambing time. We have Agri students come to us in the spring time and its hard to beat actual hands on experience with more difficult lambings, knowing I'm not too far away if they get stuck. (or puzzled when 4 feet and a head show up all at once!) - Our last student told me he gets the difficult ones at home now because he can now deal with them.

Starting a farm, Wont be cheap. But wish you all the best!