My name is Samuel Johnston and I am 18 years old.  I am currently on my second year at the Enniskillen Campus of CAFRE studying a NVQ Level 2 in Livestock Production.  The course is one day a week over a two year period.  I spend the rest of the week working on a dairy farm owned by Richard Liggett.

This may seem odd as I am from a farm currently rented to local farmers.  The reason for this is because my father runs an agricultural engineering business – Johnston Bros Engineering, which produces silage trailers and shear grabs alongside a range of other farming equipment.  On leaving school my interest was farming more than engineering. I had to decide what I would do so rather than start farming at home without any experience I got a job on a dairy farm and enrolled on the above course.

This farm currently runs about 130 cows and 80 followers.  I am involved in all the daily tasks, that is, milking, scraping, feeding calves and mixing of the rations fed through a feeder wagon. I recently completed an A.I. course with A.I. Services and this has proved extremely useful as the herd I work with are all Artificially Inseminated with genetically selected semen.

As Richard works in partnership with his brother, I get ample opportunity to mow down and draw in silage.  They also try to spread as much of their own slurry as possible if ground conditions are suitable. This is putting into practice, skills I learned from attending tractor driving and telehandler training at CAFRE

The experience to date has been useful to me and has given me an insight into the highs and lows of dairy farming.

I know that this is preparing me for the future and although my family have a thriving business my father and brother are content to let me farm full time for the next few years. With this in mind, when I complete the NVQ Level 2, I would like to go on to complete the NVQ Level 3 course specialising in Dairying at Greenmount.

Samuel Johnston operating the tractor on Richard Liggett’s farm.

Samuel Johnston preparing to feed cows on Richard Liggett's farm