Gurteen College

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Gurteen Agricultural College Main Building Gurteen-college.jpg
Gurteen Agricultural College Main Building

Gurteen College is an agricultural college in Ballingarry, County Tipperary, Ireland. Founded as Gurteen Agricultural College by the Methodist Church in Ireland in 1947, [1] it was officially opened by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Patrick Smith, on October 11, 1947. The college provides training courses in agriculture and equine studies for farms and rural enterprises. It is a charity registered in Ireland. [2] The farm covers 380 hectares of land. The farm of the college consists of a dairy herd, beef and sheep herd, and tillage. It is both a day and resisdential college, with rooms for up to 70 students.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Courses

Gurteen College provides a Level 5 Certificate in Agriculture Course, along with Level 6 Advance Certificates in Agriculture in Crops & Machinery Management, Dairy Herd Management, and Drystock Herd Management. The Equine department opened in 1999 and currently runs a Level 5 and 6 in Horsemanship. The TUS Athlone campus offers a Bachelor of Science (Veterinary Nursing). [3] where student do a spend time completing practical skills on the teaching farm at Gurteen College. Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest offers an Agricultural Science and Sustainability course at Levels 7 and 8 in conjunction with Gurteen College. The college also provides a distance education course and a part time Green cert course too, along with regular one off courses.

Latest developments

Gurteen college students were crowned Annual Colleges Challenge Day Champions on 2 February 2012. [4]

Woodchip boilers were installed to provide heat to the college in September 2010. Groves of willow grown in three year rotations provide fuel for the boilers. [5]

Met Éireann opened an automatic weather station in 2008 within the grounds of the College. [6]

On 26 January 2010 a 50 kW wind turbine was officially commissioned to provide power to the college. [7]

Past pupils

Principals

Rev. James Wesley McKinney (who went on to have a building within Gurteen named after him - McKinney Hall) was first Principal in 1947 until he retired in 1959, when Rev. R. G. Livingstone became principal. Mr. Oscar H. Loane became principal in 1963 serving until 1988 when John Craig became principal, retiring in 2000. Jon Parry was appointed principal in 2019, the college's sixth principal succeeding Mick Pearson who served as principal for twenty years. [8] [ citation needed ]

References

  1. ↑ "Chapter 23 Gurteen College" (PDF). irishmethodist.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  2. ↑ "Mission Statement". Gurteencollege.ie. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  3. ↑ Bachelor of Science Veterinary Nursing Archived 2012-11-29 at the Wayback Machine Athlone IT Website.
  4. ↑ Published on Tuesday 7 February 2012 11:11 (7 February 2012). "Gurteen College take the Challenges Day title - Business - Offaly Express". Offalyexpress.ie. Retrieved 3 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ "Wood-chip Boilers". Gurteencollege.ie. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  6. ↑ "Weather Observing Stations - Gurteen - Met Éireann - The Irish Meteorological Service Online". Met.ie. 12 April 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  7. ↑ "Atlantic Orient Canada Wind Turbine to Power Tipperary Gurteen Agricultural College | Ireland Renewable Energy Systems". Res.ie. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  8. ↑ Kiernan, Aisling (6 September 2019), "New principal appointed to the helm at Gurteen College", www.agriland.e, Agriland, retrieved 2 January 2022

52°39′46″N7°48′08″W / 52.662680°N 7.802230°W / 52.662680; -7.802230

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