Graduate Certificate in Dairy Herd Health Commences
A group of 30 enthusiastic and eager to learn cattle practitioners registered for UCD’s new Graduate Certificate in Dairy Herd Health on August 18th. The programme was over subscribed many months prior to the deadline, which speaks volumes in terms of the demand for such a course in the sector. During the induction day of the programme the group was addressed by Prof Grace Mulcahy, Dean of Veterinary Medicine and Mr Joe O’Flaherty CEO of Animal Health Ireland, both of whom emphasised the important role for cattle practitioners in Ireland’s dairy industry. Mr. Joe O’Flaherty made particular reference to potential contribution that graduates of this programme could make in realising a 50% increase in output from the Irish dairy sector, which is a strategic objective of the Department of Agriculture’s Food Harvest 2020 report.
The Graduate Certificate aims to provide busy cattle practitioners with the chance to engage in a part-time programme of education in the area of dairy herd health. The programme is delivered primarily on-line and incorporates the latest educational technology tools to support a rich educational experience for all students. Over the next sixteen months the group will be put through their paces in the areas of herd health investigation skills, nutrition and production diseases, calf health and heifer rearing, infectious diseases biosecurity and parasite control, milk quality and mastitis and dairy herd fertility.
It is expected that the first graduates of the programme will be conferred at the veterinary medicine graduation in June 2012 with a Graduate Certificate in Dairy Herd Health. This qualification, set at level 9 on the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland scale challenges students at a very high level.
Information literacy skills session with students and Dermot Stokes (Veterinary Subject Librarian)