Agricultural courses

Do you own a farm business that produces animals or crops? Do you want to improve your ability to market and sell your produce?

This course will develop your ability to apply marketing strategies and concepts to your agricultural business, assisting you to improve your financial viability. Topics covered include:

• Marketing Concepts and Strategies
• Target Marketing
• Handling Produce
• Customer Relations
• Market Research
• Promotions
• Managing Marketing

Very few non-rural businesses are presented with the continuing changes and variations that confront a rural business. The impact of climate means the rural manager has to continually consider, evaluate, assess (and reassess) often on a daily or even hourly basis, the numerous changes and types of information that may affect the rural business success.

This course will help you to develop your ability to understand, analyse and manage marketing problems in an agricultural enterprise.

Need to know how to handle animals or deal with behavioural problems?

This provides an excellent foundation for working with or training animals in any situation, including farms, zoos, veterinary practices, pet shops or even in the wild. Learn about:

•  Animal influences and motivation
• Influences on behaviour such as genetics, perception and the environment
• Social behaviour
• Instincts and learning
• Handling animals
• Managing behavioural problems

A useful course for students who have an interest in the scientific understanding of animal behaviour. This will enable students to evaluate behavioural characteristics in animals with which they are in contact.

Basic genetics and animal breeding

Our animal breeding course provides a foundation knowledge in animal breeding. The course will provide you with all of the knowledge required to be able to plan the implementation of an animal breeding program. In this course you will learn about:

• Genetics
• Selection
• Pure breeding
• Cross breeding
• Lifestock improvement

Foundation training in animal health care

Home study subject - Using this course as a vocational tool or general qualification, students can find employment in many areas

Learn to care for the health of any type of animal (focus is on mammals and birds) and understand the scope of services offered by animal care services, including in veterinary practices. This course is appropriate for anyone interested in working with animals including:

• on a farm,
• a wildlife park
• veterinary practice

This is a sound foundation course and designed to cover most of what is found in a typical veterinary assistants course in many countries around the world.

This subject can be studied as a "stand-alone" subject or it can be taken as part of a Certificate in Animal Health or a Certificate in Animal Husbandry. These courses can be used to negotiate Recognition of Prior Learning (R.P.L) as part of many  different government accredited Qualifications Pathways in the Animal Health sector.

LEARN ANIMAL ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY

Study Animal Anatomy and Physiology online from home

Home study and open learning

Develop a sound foundation knowledge of animal anatomy and physiology as a basis to understanding the care and management of animals. This course is the starting point for working with animals in any situation. You will study - cells and tissues, the digestive system, the circulatory system, the urinary system, the nervous system, respiration, the reproductive system, muscles and meat, the skeleton, animal growth, development, and the endocrine system.

"The course teaches you the different systems within animals in terms of structure and function, cell and tissue structure, and also the differences between different categories of animals." Marius Erasmus - ACS Tutor, B. Science (Agriculture,) B. Science (Wildlife), Master of Science (Agriculture)

This course provide you with an understanding of the structure and function of the following:

• Animal cells and tissues
• Digestive system
• Circulatory system
• Urinary system
• Respiratory system
• Reproductive System
• Skeletal Systems

 Follow the link below for more information

Study Disease Recognition and Animal Health

Learn to identify and describe common diseases and conditions found in livestock, and how to appropriately treat or respond to these. Specific topics include signs and symptoms of diseases, diseaes classification and causes, fever and immunity, tissue repair, and wounds and cell changes. It is advisable to complete Animal Husbandry I before attempting this course.

This course complements both Animal Health Care and Natural Therapies for Animal Health Care. To obtain the most extensive knowledge of Animal Health; consider undertaking all three modules as part of a Certificate in Animal Husbandry.

Feed evaluation and ration formulation

Learn the composition of a range of feeds such as pasture, fodder, crops, grasses, cereals, seed and others.  This course will give you the skills you need to evaluate feeding and select the right feed for digestibility and nutritional content.  This course is very applicable to real life farming situations

Student Comment:

"I think it is absolutely brilliant. I have never come across such a friendly, helpful staff and am so enjoying my course. I will definitely recommend ACS to anybody who wants to study over the net." - T. Sadler

Foundation studies in aquaculture

This is the perfect course for those who are wanting a good foundation knowledge in Aquaculture. For those wanting to set up an aquaculture business, this course is also ideal, giving you the ability to independently analyse and make decisions about the management of an aquaculture business. You will study:

• Production Systems
• Species for Farming
• Setting up a Fish Farm
• Feeding
• Harvesting

Start your own Cattle Breeding business?

This course will build your confidence and knowledge, teaching you most of what you will need to know about breeding and managing beef cattle.

This course covers:

• Cattle Breeds
• Cattle Production
• Cattle Breeding
• Diseases and Nutrition in Beef Cattle
• Management of Herds, Feed lots, Stud Herds
• Economics and Marketing

Wanting to breed calves or to understand how to care for them?

This course will provide you with the knowledge to select calves for specific purposes
(eg. dairy, beef, breeding) and to rear them. It covers:

• Calving and Culling
• Management of Calves
• Calf Health and Diseases
• Calf Rearing Systems
• Calf Housing
• Calf Weaning

Learn to farm dairy cattle more successfully.

This is a very practical foundation course; providing unique and extensive support from university qualified and industry experienced experts.
If you want to learn about dairy cattle and their management, this is the course for you.

Australian Correspondence Schools, Home Studies -Agricultural School

What is that disease? How do I find out?

Develop your understanding of equine behaviour   and your ability to apply that to the welfare and training of the horse.
Behaviour is any externally observable activity of an animal. In general, it includes:
• Movement of parts of the body
• Stopping expected movement
• Secretions from the body
• Changes in body colour

Want to know how to be a farmer or better manage a farm to make a profit?

In this course you learn to analyse, diagnose and make decisions related to management of a farm business. The course relates to the management of all resources, including; production, staff, physical resources, and natural resources. You will also learn about:

• Strategic planning
• Whole farm planning
• Preparing a business plan
• Business Assessment
  
  This course was developed by a team of experts led by John Mason, author of Profitable Farming, published by Kangaroo Press.  If interested, you can purchase a copy of this book from our bookshop (click here)

Manage the daily requirements of a horse at grass.

The course aims to develop:

• The ability to handle horses using a range of different procedures
• Skills to evaluate a horses conformation
• An understanding of diet
• Knowledge of grooming procedures
• An ability to develop appropriate management procedures for a specific situation.
• Knowledge of commercial opportunities in the horse industry, including how to buy and sell horses.

Stable management, grooming, exercise and conditioning

This course follows on from Horse Care I. It focuses on the care of stabled performance horses and covers topics such as:

• Stabling
• Foot Care
• Bedding
• Tack
• Conditioning

The course complements Horse Care I and Horse Care III. It may be studied as a part of a Certificate, Advanced Certificate or Associate Diploma level of equine studies: or it may be studied as a single short vocational level course.

Australian Correspondence Schools, Home Studies -Agricultural School

Building on Horse Care I and II, learn to better manage the health and condition of horses in different situations, including while traveling or competing in events.

Who should do this course:

• Anyone who is transporting horses and caring for them while away from home
• Horse owners and breeders
• Equine event organisers

Wanting to better understand Irrigation and how to best use Irrigation on your farm or property?

Farming often succeeds or fails according to the way water is managed. This course will give you the information that you need to irrigate successfully, including:

• Understanding soil characteristics and problems
• Understanding water and how it behaves in the environment
• Types of irrigation systems
• How to design and manage basic irrigation systems
• Understanding how to make the best ue of limited waer supplies

Need to know how to manage or design a large scale Irrigation System?

This course builds on our Irrigation course and teaches you to manage the design and operation of large scale irrigation systems, such as in a nursery, for a large crop, turf, garden or pasture.

• Water management and efficiency
• Irrigation scheduling for large crops
• Drainage system design
• Irrigation controllers or maintenance
• Fertigation
• Design and Evalution

Technology has come a long way in the treatment of disease in both domestic and livestock. The conventional approach used by most veterinary practices has had great success in treating ailments such as acute infection and trauma. One problem that has come from this conventional approach to treatment is the narrowing view of how ailments can be treated and the growing reliance on chemical products for treatment. This has lead to the re-emergence of holistic therapies for animals. Practitioners who use this holistic approach to the treatment of illness in animals believe that symptoms represent the action of an individual’s “life force”. To protect an animal’s life force, symptoms are created such as diarrhea, vomiting, coughing and sneezing to throw off the disturbance.

Lay a Foundation to work in Organic Farming.

The philosophy at the heart of organic farming is to work with the cycles of nature rather then against them. Organic farmers see their farms as a 'whole' (but closed) system; they try to minimise outside inputs, even those that are organically approved. Although organic farming will not solve all the economic problems inherent in modern farms, there is a definite trend towards organic produce.

This course provides the student with a solid understanding of the systems and management techniques of organic farming, for both crops and livestock.

Field trips for research purposes are required.

Extend your knowledge and capacity to care for all types of pets.

A sound introduction to caring for a wide variety of different of different pets. Covers dogs, cats, fish, birds, rabbits, rodents, reptiles and amphibians. The course was developed and is tutored by highly qualified and experienced professionals including Veterinary Surgeon,s a former wildlife park manager, and university lecturers.This course is a great introduction to the care of a wide variety of different pets. Information is included on the care of :

• Dogs
• Cats
• Fish
• Birds
• Rabbits
• Rodents
• Reptiles
• Amphibians.

This course provides an outstanding opportunity to extend your knowledge, perspective and capacity to care for all types of pets. This course was developed by highly qualified and experienced professionals including veterinary surgeons..

A career in pig production/husbandry?

Pig production can be highly sophisticated or unsophisticated. There are many different ways of producing pigs for market, ranging from more "natural" systems, where animals are farmed in paddocks, to "factory" like systems where animals spend virtually all of their life confined to small pens in large buildings with many husbandry tasks (e.g. feeding and watering) being automated.

This course develops a better understanding of pig biology and production, covering such things as:

• Breeding and Selection
  
• Feeding
• Diseases
• Managing the Boar
• Managing the Sow and Litter
• Fattening Pigs
• Economics and Records etc.

This course covers in detail the management of all types of poultry: Chickens, Turkeys, Geese and Ducks including:

• Terminology
• Breeds
• Nutrition
• Diseases In Poultry
• Layers
• Broilers
• Incubation
• Brooding
• Record Keeping
• Economics & Marketing.

Become active in the horse industry

Do you want to work with horses? Do you work at a riding school, racecourse or horse farm? This course is perfect for those seeking a qualification in the management of horses.

This course will provide you with the knowledge to become a manager, supervisor or employee in the horse industry. You will study:

• Horse Care I, II and III
• Management
• Office Practices
• Business Operations
• Marketing Foundations

This course also requires the completion of a 200hr workplace project on the horse industry, allowing you to gain practical knowledge and an understanding of the  industry.

This course is internationally accredited through I.A.R.C.

This course provides professional level training for people wishing to work in agriculture at a technician or management level; in animal industries including:

• Farm Production (Meat, dairy, wool)
• Allied Trades (Farm supplies, veterinary services etc)
• Equine (Racing, Breeding, horse riding)

Employment possibilities include as farm managers, technical representatives, trainers or consultants.

Agriculture today is a highly competative, global market. Many traditional forms of agriculture are sometimes difficult to operate competatively, particularly within developed countries, but even in the most competative economies, some agricultural enterprises still remain not only viable, but hiighly profitable. Success may be gained by value adding, or perhaps by filling a market niche not able to be readily filled by international or mass market competition. This is a very solid  training program for people wishing to work in alternative areas of agriculture at a technician or management level; in positions such as a farm manager, technical representatives, trainers or consultants.

Develop a foundation in Agriculture and the Media

Job Opportunities include:

• Agricultural Extension Officer
• Agricultural Journalist or Writer
• Trainer or Educator
• Agricultural Marketing Officer

Build a foundation for a career in Agriculture.

• To work on your own farm
• To work in a supervisory capacity on a farm
• To work for a farm supply or servicing business

To obtain this certificate, you must complete six modules including:  Farm Management, Agriculture Marketing, Animal Health Care and 3 electives of your choice.

Train for a Career in Animal Health or Welfare

This is a comprehensive and highly practical course; for anyone who wants to better understand the health and well-being of animals. It is designed to provide a foundation for employment in any type of animal care job; whether pets, domesticated farm livestock or wildlife (captive or free).

This course was developed by a team of Veterinarians, Agricultural College Lecturers, and Allied Animal Industry experts in order to facilitate employment within the animal health care and management sectors. The course helps the student to develop skill sets deemed necessary by animal industry and rural employers.

The course can be used to negotiate Recognition of Prior Learning (R.P.L) as part of many different government accredited Qualifications Pathways in the Animal Health sector. 

Learn about animal anatomy and physiology, diagnosing animal diseases, natural animal health care, animal health and care, and either animal psychology or animal feed and nutrition.

Study Animal Husbandry at home

This course is designed to give you the knowledge and skills to work confidently in the agricultural environment in a range of roles related to animal production and husbandry. Learn about animal breeds, behaviour, nutrition, animal health care issues and general management methods.

Recognise and diagnose different pests, diseases and conditions that affect the well being of both pets or other livestock, and implement control strategies for common problems.

Want to understand how to breed or care for Sheep? Want to make a bigger profit on your Sheep farm?

This course will give you the solid foundation that you need to be able to effectively care for or breed sheep. Information covered in the course includes:

• Selection and Breeding
• Nutrition of Sheep
• Diseases affecting Sheep
• General Management of a Commercial Flock
• Lamb Care
• Marketing of Sheep and Sheep Products

Good Soils are the foundation for all agriculture! Simple soil treatments can turn struggling farms into profitable properties. Soil management is not always the answer, but without it success is evasive and without studies such as this behind you, it;'s difficult to know how much of a factor your soil management is.

This is a general soil management course involving: introduction to soils, nutrition, soil physics, chemistry, testing, problems, land degradation, soil management in farms and crops. The eight lessons include a special project on soil management for a site of your choosing.

Want to make your farm or property more Sustainable? Want a career in Sustainable Agriculture?

Sustainability in Agriculture has become increasingly important over recent times, as it has been realised that the profitability and longevity of a productive farm includes not just looking after the financial aspects but considering environmental factors as well.

This course will allow you to better understand the potential ways in which you can make your property more sustainable. Economic, commercial, marketing and production techniques are explored in a multi-faceted way to help move a farm towards improved sustainability.

The course also covers information on:

• Soil management
• Water management
• Land care and management, including the management of weeds, fire, trees, pests and disease.
• Management Stategies
• Selection of animals and plants
  

Learn to identify and effectively control weeds. You learn about both chemical and non-chemical control methods (e.g. mulching, burning, slashing), the use of spray equipment, and safety procedures which should be followed. This course is appropriate to anyone who needs a better understanding of weeds, including:

• Land owners
• Farmers
• Land Managers (Park managers, Golf Course superintendents, foremen, etc)
• Environmental Officers
• Farm contractors
• Farm suppliers
• Landscape contractors