[susiew]

Hey, i was wondering what people have done/did for their agriculture work experience? Did you just work on a farm for or a while or is there work experience that stands out?

Thanks!

[Origami Bullets]

(Original post by susiew)
Hey, i was wondering what people have done/did for their agriculture work experience? Did you just work on a farm for or a while or is there work experience that stands out?

Thanks!

I volunteered on a city farm for a while - not because I needed it for any specific experience, but because I enjoyed it. Anyway, it's quite a good, accessible way of getting agricultural work experience.

[susiew]

(Original post by Origami Bullets)
I volunteered on a city farm for a while - not because I needed it for any specific experience, but because I enjoyed it. Anyway, it's quite a good, accessible way of getting agricultural work experience.

thanks so what type of work did you do at this farm? was it animals based or farm work based? thanks.

[Origami Bullets]

(Original post by susiew)
thanks so what type of work did you do at this farm? was it animals based or farm work based? thanks.

It was mainly (but not exclusively) a case of marshalling the child volunteers who came to work with the livestock though - so it was everything from the more mundane mucking out and collecting eggs to the more exciting pig farrowing (you haven't lived until you've performed CPR on a piglet...)

I'm guessing that this is for vet med? If so, I found that I learned a lot from keeping chickens, reading about their health (the Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow is an excellent read) and treating them myself. Chickens are a vastly understudied animal at vet school (one vet admitted he'd never treated one before; I didn't use them again), and it got to the point where I knew more than the specialist farm vet (and the vet realised this, so would ask me what I thought was wrong, nod sagely and dole out the prescription I wanted!) Anyway, you could do that sort of thing with any species really, although chickens are probably one of the more practical animals to do it with - they're easy to keep even in cities, the information is out there (and there are forums dedicated to chicken vet med, which are incredibly useful), and it socially acceptable to treat them yourself, whereas some people seem to think that your dog needs to see a vet every time it sneezes or gets anywhere near some chocolate

Anyway, I'm not a vet med student, I'm just a city kid with an unusual level of interest in agriculture!

[susiew]

(Original post by Origami Bullets)
It was mainly (but not exclusively) a case of marshalling the child volunteers who came to work with the livestock though - so it was everything from the more mundane mucking out and collecting eggs to the more exciting pig farrowing (you haven't lived until you've performed CPR on a piglet...)

I'm guessing that this is for vet med? If so, I found that I learned a lot from keeping chickens, reading about their health (the Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow is an excellent read) and treating them myself. Chickens are a vastly understudied animal at vet school (one vet admitted he'd never treated one before; I didn't use them again), and it got to the point where I knew more than the specialist farm vet (and the vet realised this, so would ask me what I thought was wrong, nod sagely and dole out the prescription I wanted!) Anyway, you could do that sort of thing with any species really, although chickens are probably one of the more practical animals to do it with - they're easy to keep even in cities, the information is out there (and there are forums dedicated to chicken vet med, which are incredibly useful), and it socially acceptable to treat them yourself, whereas some people seem to think that your dog needs to see a vet every time it sneezes or gets anywhere near some chocolate

Anyway, I'm not a vet med student, I'm just a city kid with an unusual level of interest in agriculture!

thanks for all the information, its really useful! and i was interested in studying veterinary medicine but after some career searching and helping farmers with lambing and general farm work i decided i'd like to study agriculture! not neccesarily become a farmer, but something like that! i know that i need work experience as the course i want to do says i need LOTS of work experience!
thanks for all your help