Skills and Training

This module describes the benefits and practice of implementing effective composting on your farm. 

This course is an introduction to the importance to peatland management in their role as key habitats and in the benefits they provide farmers and the wider environment including through mitigating climate change.

Fertiliser production and application accounts for a significant proportion of a farm’s energy input as well as their costs each year. It is recognised that intensive and sub-optimal fertiliser application is linked with negative impacts on groundwater nutrient levels and...

The term orchard refers to a plantation of trees designed to produce crops of fruits and nuts. As they are often in place for 15 years or more, careful planning pre-planting will give the best results. The most commonly grown...

Working alongside ecosystems by boosting biodiversity and the health of ecosystem like soils, can help farms become more sustainable long-term.  

This course looks at key aspects of ecosystems and relates this to management areas that should be considered towards...

The simple dictionary definition of compost is as follows: a mixture that consists largely of decayed organic matter and is used for fertilizing and conditioning land. Compost consists largely of decayed carbon-based matter like fruits, vegetables, manure, grasses, dead leaves...

This module takes you through bracken as a habitat; when it has high nature value and when it doesn’t; control methods; and some uses for bracken and bracken-covered land. At the end of the module you should have a better...

Diffuse pollution is pollution that enters the environment such as a watercourse in a way that cannot be clearly attributed to a single activity. This might be through multiple sources or a single source but entering a watercourse in multiple...

This module will describe how to assess a sward, identify common grass species and give information on ryegrass, clovers and multi-species leys. Ploughing and re-seeding under the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations will also be discussed.

This module addresses the need for infrastructure management, current legislation, storage and handling and the impacts of rainwater.