Work Experience

We have been hosting school children and vet students on Portnellan since 1983 and WWOOFers since 2013

We welcome veterinary students, WWOOFers and school children looking to gain experience on the farm.

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 1st 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

WWOOFers

What’s a WWOOFer, you might be asking?  It’s a world-wide movement to connect visitors (the WWOOFers) with hosts, who are mainly organic farmers and smallholders.  It is a synergistic relationship – the volunteer receives free board and lodging in return for working on the farm, and no money changes hand.  We are part of WWOOF UK so if you wish to volunteer with us, you should first join the UK WWOOF community and then select your hosts.  After that, you will communicate with your selected hosts through the WWOOF communication channels (a bit clunky) to arrange a mutually period to join the farm.  The website is https://wwoof.net/.

Portnellan is a commercial farm, albeit a small one and you should be prepared to work with cattle.  The tasks are varied, and no two days are the same unless there is a big project going on.

WWOOFers 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, clearing ditches, hedging or road building and you will be expected to join in all sorts of activities.  Chris often values help with his watersports and you may be asked to help host our visitors who are here for a farm tour. You will not be expected to drive machinery.  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.

School children who want to go to vet school

No veterinary school will accept a student who has not shown that they have experience with animals, including production animals like cows, sheep or pigs.  This can be challenging for students who have no contacts in the farming world, or stables.  Therefore Portnellan Farm offers the chance for school children to experience farm work on our organic beef farm.  David and Chris are the farmers and there are two vets (Freda and Arwyn) living on the farm therefore you should be ready to make use of the extensive help and advice they can offer you.

We prefer school children to be 16 or over although we have had some very successful 15-year olds (but please see the comments below).  We suggest that school children come to stay for one week although this might not be possible, and we can look at other periods.

The depth of experience you will get on Portnellan will depend to a large extent on what you put into the placement.  We will give you a huge variety of information about cows, organic farming and how to prepare to get into vet school.  However, in return we expect you to engage with us.  Enthusiasm and politeness are essential – and an ability to ask questions. There is no such thing as a silly question.  We have considerable experience of hosting students and if we ask you a question, it is to engage with you and open a line of discussion that will teach you something interesting.

Vets are dealing with people the whole time: owners of pets, farmers, horse owners and you must be a cheerful, enthusiastic ‘people person’.  It might be beneficial to take a job in a service industry like a café or restaurant to learn how to deal with members of the public before you apply to vet school.  Thus, if you are still very shy and get tongue-tied in the face of questions and discussion, then consider deferring your application to Portnellan.

Accommodation and food are provided but no payments are made to students or school children.  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. You should not come to the farm without discussing the placement fully with your parent(s) or a teacher or careers advisor.

School students will have ample opportunity to join in all the activities on the farm, including cattle handling, and depending on the time of year, observing 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.  We are a teaching farm for the University of Glasgow Veterinary School and students attend the farm to do routine fertility work and get experience in some 1st opinion clinical tasks.

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.

When you are applying to the farm for a 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 school and which year are you in
  • Why you want to go to vet school and what sort of vet do you think you might want to be
  • Have you had any on-farm experience with farm animals before?
  • Did you apply to the farm because we are organic
  • And most importantly, what dates do you have available

If you are interested, please contact David Scott-Park at Portnellan Farm

Email: info@portnellanfarm.co.uk