SRUC’s Barony Campus, Dumfries and Galloway recently welcomed 12 first year Agriculture students from its Ayr Campus to take part in a range of practical and hands on teaching classes.
The students who had recently started their studies stayed on the Barony campus and had direct access to the excellent facilities there including the Scottish Dairy Technology Centre, and those at the Crichton Royal Research Farm. The purpose of the students’ visit was to enhance their learning experience by taking them away from their normal learning and farming environment.
The group gained invaluable tips and career inspiration from experienced members of staff including Hugh McClymont, Research Farm Manager at Crichton, and Paul Kelly, Farm Manager on the Barony Campus.
The students also visited local livestock farm Hartbush where they learned about their beef and sheep weighing and handling facilities, and could compare this with farming in their immediate local area.
Practical tasks which the students undertook on the cattle at the Barony Campus farm involved dosing, worming, vaccinating, tagging, disbudding and clipping tails.
Student Craig Mitchell said:
“It was great to see what happens at different farms, the facilities on the Barony Campus are excellent, and we got to do a lot of practical tasks while we were there. It was very interesting meeting the various members of staff, in particular Hugh McClymont who talked about his varied career.”
Another Agriculture student Fionnulla Kerr commented:
“It was great to get practical hands-on experience at Barony. I work on a dairy farm so I was really interested to see the robot milking and some of the different aspects of farming”.
More information on the range of courses available across all six SRUC campuses can be found at https://www.sruc.ac.uk/education
Photograph: SRUC Ayr Campus students during their visit to the Barony Campus.
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