CAFRE Level II Agricultural Business Operations Course up and running

The CAFRE Agricultural Business Operations (Level II) Course is now up and running for a fourth year.

CAFRE’S Head of Development Service Eric Long welcomes one of the level II Agricultural Business Operations beef classes to Greenmount Campus. Included in the photo is course tutor Robert Hull.

The evening classes, which started in early October, run weekly for 20 weeks, with 185 students attending, arable, beef, dairy, and sheep courses delivered in one of the three CAFRE Campuses.   

The CAFRE Agricultural Business Operations (Level II) qualification meets the agricultural training eligibility requirements for the Young Farmers’ Payment/Regional Reserve Scheme. To date, well over 3,000 farmers and growers have completed the course.

The delivery and management of the course, which is accredited through the Open College Network Northern Ireland (OCNNI), was described as being “outstanding” by the OCNNI External Verifier. Feedback from learners who have completed the course has been very positive, with 95% reporting high satisfaction with the qualification.

Antrim beef farmer Stirling Dennison is one of the current group of students attending a beef enterprise class on Monday evenings at Greenmount Campus, along with his nephew James and brother William. Stirling said:

“I was keen to complete the beef course to develop my knowledge of beef breeding, feeding and health. I am also looking forward to the modules on running a business as well as the ones on health & safety and ICT. To date, I have found the course to be both informative and enjoyable and I am hoping to be able to complete all the assessments successfully as it is a while since I was at school – thankfully so far so good in that respect. I would highly recommend the course to other farmers and growers who want to improve their farming knowledge and business sense.”

Course manager Kenneth Johnston, said: “We tried to make the course as practical as possible, starting with basic business models, cash flow projecting and financing. Farmers can now generate a gross margin, know their costs, income and net profit. It allows many of them to go home from the course and sit down and tease out those aspects of their own farm business.”

For more information on the Agricultural Business Operations (Level II) qualification, visit the CAFRE website.

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