Vet students

Extra Mural Studies (EMS) placements are an important part of a vet student’s clinical education.  We prefer our students to come for two weeks but one week stays are also possible.  Strictly speaking, experience on a farm is ‘pre-clinical’ and a student coming to Portnellan Farm will learn about organic farming principles, animal husbandry and animal handling.  You will learn how to handle cows and calves and to better understand farm economics and farm diversification.  David and Chris are the farmers and there are two vets (Freda and Arwyn) living on the farm therefore you should avail yourself of the extensive help and advice they can offer. Every two weeks, Glasgow University Veterinary School students come out with their tutors, and you will be welcome to join in the ‘vet school visit’.

You should be an enthusiastic and communicative individual to make the best of your time on Portnellan.  If you have no interest in farming, or a career in mixed or agricultural practice, then this placement is not for you.  We give a lot of time and energy to our students, and we expect the same back. On arrival, you should tell us what you want to achieve during your time on the farm.  You should also discuss the feedback that you need to submit to your EMS department and this should be produced for signing well before the very last minute as you depart.

There are certain times of the year (when the cows are housed in winter, calving and insemination) when you will get extensive experience.  When the cows are out at grass in the spring, summer and autumn there is less to do on a daily basis but they are checked every day and moved from paddock to paddock.  You will be expected to join in on all sorts of activities on the farm.

Winter period: the cows and calves are housed in a cubicle house and are fed silage in an adjacent building.  There is a couple of hours routine work in the morning, feeding the cows and keeping their beds and passageways clean and then other visits to push in their silage.  Students should spend lots of time, just observing the cows – for normal behaviour, rumination, cudding, or for over-grown feet, or lumps and bumps etc.

Calving: we calve the cows outside (if the weather is right) so we start calving in mid-April, over a period of about 12 weeks.  You should get the opportunity to observe lots of normal calvings, and very occasionally, an assisted calving.  Expect some late nights (occasionally an all-nighter) watching calving heifers and cows.

Insemination: we do not have a bull on Portnellan so observation of the cows coming into season is a critical skill.  Although this can be observed all the time, because young stock display reproductive behaviour from a very young age, learning to detect cows in season is a skill that will impress your future farming clients.  The insemination period runs from July 1^st for a period of approx. 3 months.

Students will have ample opportunity to join in all the activities on the farm, including cattle handling, and depending on the time of year, foot trimming, castrations, disbudding, calvings and participating in routine veterinary visits.  There may be fencing projects, hedging or road building and you will be expected to join in all sorts of activities.  You should let us know on arrival if you need time to study for exams – this is very important, and you will be encouraged to take plenty of time for bookwork around the farm activities.

Accommodation and food are provided but no payments are made to students.  You will be sent a risk assessment before you come; you should read this carefully before you come because it details all the hazards that you might find on a farm.

When you are applying to the farm for an EMS placement, you should try to address your email to the farmer, not just Hi!  It helps if you can give us as much information as possible in your first communication, which will ensure a speedy and efficient reply.  This includes:

• A brief introduction – where are you at vet school and which year you are in
• Why you decided to go to vet school and what sort of vet do you want to be
• Have you had any on-farm experience with cows before?
• Did you apply to the farm because we are organic
• And most importantly, what dates do you have available

Please note, we have approximately 40 breeding cows which means that we have variably between 80-120 cattle on the farm, depending on the season.