1. Please introduce yourself and your farm!<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n
My name is Evija Skudra, I am an organic cattle farmer, and I currently have 70
producing cows on my farm, I have been working for 8 years, together with my
husband and children. It is a family farm or business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And do you like what you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, because if you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t do it. It has to be inside you because you can’t work with an animal if you don’t like it. The animal feels it, and then nothing And how big is your farm?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have about 300 hectares of land: part of it is pasture, and then in the trial we also Would you be interested in on-farm training if school children ever came to see?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, that’s the time to do it, because children are more sedentary, on computers and Also in the countryside, not just in the city?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, because it seems that if you live in the country and you don’t have animals and you haven’t seen how it happens, then there is no difference between being a country kid and a city kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t have any experience in educating students myself, but we educate and work What difficulties might arise in the learning process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Children might also have difficulties – there are different children: there are those who don’t listen, those who don’t hear, those who are bothered by smells and stenches, but children have to understand that these are animals, this is countryside, this is how it should be, there is mud, there is everything. It is certainly suitable, as there were agricultural traineeships at the technical school in the past (30 years ago). When I was a kid, we even had internees coming to our farm, working, without having to pay for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But now would you be willing to take on an intern?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was thinking about this just yesterday. There’s a big amount of work with them, you
works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
started to grow cereals so that the animals have their own cereals, and the rest we
make hay or produce silage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TVs, and they don’t know what happens in real life, where the milk, the meat,
everything that we consume actually comes from. It would also be interesting for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/schooltofarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/farm1_.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n2. What is your experience of using your farm to educate students?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
with our own children, and children of relatives; there are opportunities to come and
work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other difficulty might be that the animal might be afraid of children making noise, because animals are not used to strange people, to strange, sudden movements, they usually live in peace, in their own enclosure. If they were to meet strangers on a regular basis, they would be used to it.
There could also be a problem with the parents because they feel that if they have not been there themselves, they would think it is dangerous and they might not let their own in. Safety considerations have to be thought about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n3. Do you think that Latvia is a suitable country for cross-sectoral (agriculture and
education) relations\/cooperation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
have to work there, he comes and he doesn’t know anything, because city kids also
come to the technical colleges and they think they’re going to be vets, live in a clinic,
work with little dogs and cats, but he comes and he’s shocked that he has to work with a big animal, he’s scared of cows. But to become a vet, he has to go through everything. The trainees have to be trained; owners of the farm have to be behind them all the time.
Probably I would take an intern, at least something different; we have to teach the new ones somehow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n