The Barton Dairy Farm

Burlescombe

David Reed

Farm Manager

If cows could only talk, they’d be joining a farmer and his son in praising the apprenticeships offered by Bicton College.

 

For Daniel Reed, who works for his farm manager father David, has learned and developed techniques at college that have made a significant difference to the cattle’s health.

 

“We have a straight feeder wagon and you’re not supposed to mix things together in it,” says Daniel. “But I decided to try putting silage and oats we’ve milled in it just as an experiment, and it worked.

 

“The cows are now much healthier because their feed is packed with vitamins.

 

“It’s things like that you pick up at college that you might never have known about otherwise. Simple things like that sometimes get overlooked.”

 

With the day a week Daniel spends at Bicton College paying off so handsomely, his father is all the more convinced that he made the right decision to go there.

 

“Their assessor has been very good and helpful and keeps Daniel on his toes,” he says in a break from work at The Barton dairy farm in Burlescombe on the Devon Somerset border.

 

“If apprentices are on a practical farm and go to college as well they learn the technical things, too. It has helped Daniel see the wider picture.

 

“He did a year of his advanced apprenticeship in agriculture here, went to the rugby academy in Exeter for two years to get that out of his system, then came back here to finish the apprenticeship with support from Bicton.

 

“He’s learning all sides of farming. If I want to go away, I have someone capable of running the place and sorting things out.  Unless people get hands-on experience they end up being chucked in at the deep end.

 

“He sees all the bills on the table and know what things cost. We’re grooming him for the day he will hopefully be a farmer or farm manager himself.

 

“I’m very pleased with him. I’ve been down to Bicton on health and safety days and was a bit apprehensive about it before I went. But I found it most interesting and I really enjoyed the day.

 

“I have a lot of praise for the college for doing things like that. Farming can be lonely but going to a college can help you keep in touch with the wider world.

 

“I get a lot of satisfaction seeing him learning from it and being interested in what we’re doing here on the farm.”

 

As the cows were unavailable for comment, the final word must go to Daniel.

 

“You earn while you learn on an apprenticeship. It’s also very interesting because I go to college and all the other people in the class are brilliant.”

Bicton College

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