Evening Echo, Wednesday, June 29,2016 5

AWARDS: Professor Gerry Boyle, Teagasc Director; Michael Creed TD, Minister For Agriculture, Food and the Marine; FionaMuldoon, Managing Director of FBD; and Emma Cotter, second runner up in the Teagasc /FBD student of the Year Awards.

From pharma tofarming success

A YOUNG female farmer fromFermoy has beaten of f s t i f fcompetition from more than 1,000students to win one of the top

places in the Teagasc Student of the YearAwards, writes Pam Ryan.

Emma Cotter, 26, was named secondrunner up in the competition, andreceived €1,000.

The awards are given to those whoshow an outstanding level of dedication totheir vocation and an excellent perform-ance in their agricultural studies.

Looking back over her academic ca-reer, one would not think that the farmhad been the only thing calling out to her.

Her Leaving Certificate studies in-cluded biology, chemistry, business andagricultural science; a very scientificmix, from which she gained an inspira-tional 520 points.

“After completing my Leaving Certifi-cate I decided to go to the United Kingdomand study pharmacy,” she said.

“I completed a four year course in theUniversity of Sunderland and a one yearregistration in a community pharmacy,also in Sunderland.

“I was always interested in the sciencesubjects and knew I would never get thepoints for Ireland so that’s why I trainedin the UK,” she added.

The three pharmacy courses in Irelandcurrently stand at over 545 points eachthrough CAO applications, the lowestthey have been in recent years.

Yet, while Emma very much enjoyedher time in the UK and still believes it tobe “a great experience to study abroad”she recognised it was not the career pathfor her.

“I always knew I wanted to do some-thing agriculture-related but wanted toget a degree in something before return-ing to the home farm,” she said.

Emma worked in the pharmacy indus-try for six months before returning home,where she furthered her studies.

“I decided to leave the industry since Iwas so keen to get the Green Certcompleted.”

A Green Cert is a qualification in aspecific area of the agricultural sectorobtained through Teagasc, which isrecognised here in Ireland and abroad.

“(It is) a course, which teaches thetheory, business side and practical side offarming. I started the Green Cert inSeptember 2013 in Darra AgriculturalCollege in Clonakilty. I completed the twoyear course with the first 20 weeks a fulltime course. After that it was all basedfrom the home farm along with days inDarra.”

Emma believes this particular agricul-tural college is among the best with “ex-cellent teaching standards and facilities”and her win has as much to do with it andMajella Moloney, Keith Kennedy and allof the other staff, as it does with her andher work.

A typical day in the life of this farmer islike many others; milking cows, checking

on the herd, fertilising and topping,keeping an eye on food and water levels,keeping up to date with dosing and otherveterinarian tasks and maintaining thefarm itself.

It is a family farm. Her father has beenunable to continue his work there due todiabetes but Emma splits the works withher mother, Marian, now.

In the future she is hoping to expandthe dairy herd.

“It will depend on the milk pricethough. It needs to increase in order tokeep the momentum there for youngpeople in the industry,” she said.

Emma has a positive outlook for therole of women in the once male-domi-nated sector.

She said: “Just go for it! There areplenty of women who have great capabil-ities to run farm businesses.”

Emma said she was delighted to receivethe award but is not sure what she will dowith her €1,000.

She was nominated by her college,followed by an interview process. Morethan 1,000 other applicants were putthrough the rigorous process.

The awards celebrate those who havecompleted their Level Six trainingprogrammes and gained their GreenCertificates through Teagasc with theaim of bettering their contribution to theIrish agricultural sector.

Over the last two years there has beenan immense increase in demand for adultGreen Cert programmes and since late2014 almost 4,500 students have been en-rolled in part-time and distance learningcourses.

Tony Pettit, Head of Education inTeagasc, addressed the recent awards. Hesaid: “Having interviewed TeagascStudent of the Year finalists over the pastnumber of years, the quality of finalists isimproving year on year.

“It is very reassuring to see the depth ofknowledge and understanding of theseTeagasc finalists across key farm per-formance indicators,

“Many of these young finalists havealready taken over significant levels of re-

sponsibility, or full responsibility onhome farms, or through farm partner-ships and are well capable of doing so.’’

Minister for Agriculture, Food and theMarine, Michael Creed, was also inattendance. He said: “I believe that peopleof your calibre will make an importantcontribution to the future of the country’sbiggest indigenous industry.”

Chief Executive of FBD Holdings plc,Fiona Muldoon, said: “We are delighted tocelebrate the achievements of these far-ming students and future farmers. I ex-pect we will see many of them emerge asfarming leaders in the years to come.”

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