Your "Continuing Education" wishlist?

I have been charged with researching, locating, sussing, scoping out the needs and wants of "boomer hobby farmers" living in a medium-sized town in BC (Salmon Arm and area). We are hoping to deliver some new programming at the college I work at (Okanagan College), and I'm very interested in helping to determine some Agriculture-related cost-recovery short-term courses (like, 6 weeks and less, part time).

If you were a retiree who had just moved to paradise and wanted to live the Harrowsmith dream (prior to Harrowsmith going under, that is!!), what courses might you be interested in taking? If you were a working person who also own an acreage and wanted to maximize it, same question.

Don't hold back on suggestion ideas and topics. I intend to take each and every suggestion/idea and research whether it is offered at a college anywhere, and that will help us determine if it's viable for us. Thank you so much for your thought and input!!

Cheers,
FarmChiq

Hi farmchiq:
I would love to see cheese-making, and Things to know when you own your own family cow classes.
I would also like to see growing your own small scale grain crop and how to harvest and mill it. Bread making with your own grain could be a follow up class.
I sure I will think of more shortly.

I think some good courses that I have taken since moving to the farm are Agriculture book keeping and small farm management.
Some courses I would love to take would be marketing your products, and basic livestock health.

I am not a bee keeper, but having had coffee with CynthiaM a number of times, have been intrigued by the amazing amount of trickle down products of bee keeping! Wax and its various uses, the use of the honey itself in cosmetic as well as medicinal ways. Then there's the propylis. I think a value added course on bee keeping by-products would be interesting. From soap to salve, lip balm to lip licking sweetness!

Another..manure management. Not all poo is created equal. Some has higher nutrient content, some higher burn potential, some is better for certain types of soil. I think a few evenings of lectures on what kind of manure for what application, and how to decide what your soil is like and what would provide the greatest benefit. Around here we have steer, horse and goat manures easily available. A cornucopia of poo!

FarmChiq, how did you get his plum job anyway?

Farm bookkeeping and farm taxes comes to mind here for the agricultural community. Today both should be computer based, but if so Okanagan College needs to do a better job of this than UCC did when I taught similar courses. The teacher needs to have a site licence to prepare for the course at home or be paid for office hours. The software in the computer lab needs to be the same as the textbook material. Nothing is more frustrating than having to prepare at home using Simply Accounting 7, having a textbook based on a poorly updated version of Simply Accounting 8 and having Simply Accounting 9 on the lab computers.

Many seniors would say they want a computer course, but in fact want to know how to open and use an email account.

This is great! Thanks so much. Please keep them coming.

Some good ideas here.

Courses that I would personnally like to take (in addition to some of those listed above);

fruit tree care (pruning and whatnot), could include other things like blackberries

home carpentry, plumbing, electric (I do this stuff myself but you'd be surprised how many people don't even know how to change out a light fixture)

small engine repair

sheep/goat care

perhaps a forestry course, never had a woodstove before? Learn what species of trees can be used for what, learn how to fell, cut and stack your firewood, how to stack and dry higher value logs for sale to small mills or craftsmen etc (I add this one because, when we moved to our house, the seller left a room full of firewood. As I used it I discovered that he had put in every bloody tree that he was clearing. The spruce in particular had basically dried to powder.)

Oh Farmchiq, how cool of this. Absolutely (I am enrolling in the mushroom identification course by the way, kudos to you!!) something that should be is poultry genetics. I am so interested in this, but need so much newbie information on genetics. I love genetics, but just don't know where to start.

Cheesemaking, yes and absolutely, but firstly would need to get a cow, or find someone that would trade milking for something like eggs, smiling. No one will allow milk to leave their premises, government control, you know, herd sharing, well, that is so darn expensive, from what I have read about it. So, how to make cheese, if you ever get a cow.

Hmmmm...I am sure there are more, but those two come to my mind, get on that ball and roll with it, smiling. Beautiful and wonderful days, CynthiaM.

I like the carpentry, plumbing ideas.

Don't forget also for the rural folk:
- care and feeding of your septic system (not quite the same as city plumbing)
- good groundwater and well management and an understanding of well based water systems
- plant identification, especially beneficial native plants

Oh, and the most important one that all newcomers to rural life should take:

"Don't be such a jackass, you have to get along with and rely on your neighbours out here!"

You may want to shorten the title though.

Oh Ars800, if it were up to me I would use much more colourful language for titles! And I would hold a course for the city folk who come to the rural areas looking for their bliss, only to lodge complaints against the farmer who makes peafowl noises or smelly poo smells. Oh yes, I have a title for them!

Thank you all, so much, for your input. I have many good ideas to work with. I welcome other thoughts and ideas though, so if you have more, I'm listening.

What do all of you think of when I suggest "Farmyard Aquaculture"? Uno, I know it's not feasible for you (sloped land and .2 gallons/hour + fish = ) but for some of you I'm thinking it could be a viable crop? Have you ever considered it as a crop??

Some farms in Alberta stock their dugouts, but they need to be deeper than ice depth and have an oxygen supply. It perhaps could be a crop here with a deep lined pond. No doubt it would also require a water licence.

I think farmyard aquaculture could work for us, our water table is about 2 feet down. Our neighbours have a "trout pond" about 20 feet deep and it is always full and fairly clean. It's definitely a viable option for many.

However, if you really want to target the smaller, rural, I wanna be self-sufficient, green, environmental suburbanites... go aquaponics.

We've discussed aquaponics in our office at great lengths and it seems like something quite viable for us and I'm seriously considering it. I think the college/university in Nanaimo has a department specializing in aquaponics and it seems like something a smaller rural acreage could easily get into. I think it could also be a viable vegetable/meat operation for a small family. It could also be adapted to any environment/season. Cold water species like trout or salmonids and tubers/root vegetables for winter seasons, carp/tilapia and greens for warmer seasons.

Okay Ars (I hate calling your ARS as I feel like I'm calling you ARS ) I will look into Aquaponics. This is a new term to me. Thank you.

I'm with Cynthia...Genetics for Dummies!
It would need to be a very simplified introduction to genetics if I was to have any chance of following along!

• Checking the health of your livestock (how to give injections, take temps, tube a sick animal, what to have on hand in your emergency kit--including birthing kits)

• Basic nutrition - what to watch for etc, what not to feed

• Lambing

• Kidding

• Calving

• Livestock Diseases

• Animal Housing, Fencing, Protection

• Selecting the Right Livestock for your Farm

• Preserving Vegetables, Fruit and Meat

• Make money from your hobby farm(not the right title, but you know to include how to you plan for a product, the real costs to raising stock, decide which to pick, how to market, is there a market--mostly what drives this one for me is when people bought emus and alpacas and llamas at stupid prices because of the hype of making huge dollars from the offspring--pyramid scheme and they don't work)

• Selecting and Using LIvestock Guardian Dogs

• Building ECO-Friendly

• Rules and Regulations for HObby Farms

• Heirloom Vegetables - Get Growing

• Fruit Trees and Bushes - Start your own mini orchard

• Weeds: Friend or Foe, Battling them without Chemicals??

• Using Herbs for Livestock

• Home Butchering

• Compostiong

• Make and keep Healthy Soil

• Water Systems: Selecting and Maintaining

• Keeping a Healthy Riparian Zone for your Cattle and the Environment

• Raising Rabbits

• Fibre Animals - Keeping them and using their fibre

• Forage Production for you Livestock

• Transitioning to being an Organic Farm

• Alternative Treatments for Ruminants

• Raising miniature livestock (cows, goats, pigs, donkeys, horses)

• Homeopathy for Livestock

• Grass-Based Approach to Healthy Herds

• Make your own chicken plucker

• make your own chicken scalder

• Pickling and Fermenting Veggies

Great post Cathy.

Thanks!

^ I agree, some awesome ideas there.

I'll add another vote for poultry genetics, and basic animal husbandry.

I prepared courses for North Thompson U a few years ago. The idea was for people 45 and up. The most popular weekend courses were...
Excell and basic spread sheets (1 day)
Basic website creation using Frontpage (3 days, you ended up with a 3 page website)
Intro to photoshop, making the most of your photos (1 day)
Internet security, scams, phishing and malware. (1 day) ( basic safety, recognizing bad emails, malware etc).

They did really well and opened up the opportunity to have courses that were 3 or 4 evenings, 2 hours each night.

I would have liked to go to a seminar on Farmers Markets and Public Markets, what they entail, the rules, how to get going in them. I had a reall eye opener when I was abe to chat with someone who was an organizer of a larg market. I have NO IDEA about the regulations and govt involvement etc etc etc.

What about someting about applying for govt grants and permits and stuff for your hobby farm opperation.

bump... I added a few more courses.. you have to go up a few messages

I want to thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I will be compiling and submitting this today. If you think of anything else, I would happily update the list at any time, so please don't hesitate if something occurs to you.

Thank you again!
FC

I'd really love to attend this workshop:
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These are intensive all-day seminars for those who breed and raise Heritage Poultry, but they are only being offered in the States. If only we could have something like this available closer to home...

Maybe someone mentioned it but an Intro to showing poultry might be useful to new hobbiests.