Interview
Name, exam number, first time leaving certificate, repeat?
Why are you doing Ag Science? Do you come from a farming background?
What do you hope to do next year? Will it be in the Ag Science area?
Name 10 plants and plant families. Give a little information or background on them. What are their yields? Are the notifiable? Are the noxious? What impact can they have on animals and crops?
Name 3 beef breeds: describe their bodily characteristics and their uses?
Name 3 dairy breeds: describe their bodily characteristics and their uses?
Name 3 sheep breeds: describe their bodily characteristics and their uses?
Name 2 pig breeds; describe their bodily characteristics and their uses?
Name 10 other animals you would find on the farm.
Name any other parasites and the phylum they belong to. What impact do they have on crops and/or animals?
Questions related to all their projects. These would be specific to the individual.
Questions related to the farm visit and their report on it.
What crops have you covered? Will be asked on a cereal, root/potatoes and grassland. Make sure you can talk about the following:
- Varieties, if talking about barley: compare spring versus winter barley, give names of species used in seed mixture. If potatoes, give names of species used for first earlies, second earlies and main crop. Be able to compare the hay and silage, the grasses used for these versus grazing.
- Crop Rotation, what impact do specific weeds and nematodes etc have on the crops? Why is crop rotation practiced? Give an example of crop rotation for approximately 5 years.
- Cultivation practices, explain the practices and machinery used. How do you prepare a seedbed?
- Establishment, talk about fertilising, spraying for weeds, earthing up?
- Harvesting, time of year? How do you recognise if the crop is ready to be harvested? How is it stored?
- Yield: give yield per hectare of each.
Make sure you can do all livestock: beef, dairy, sheep and pigs under the following headings
- Types of enterprise: is it suckler beef, lowland sheep? Early lamb production?
- Breeds: advantages of one breed over the other. Talk about A.I., sponging etc.
- Husbandry: feeding before and after pregnancy, care of the calf,
- Disease control; at least 3 diseases; the cause, symptoms, treatment, prevention.
- Housing: advantages of inwintering, types of housing etc.
What impact would the following have on your farm and farm plan.
- Aspect, is it north or south facing? What impact would this have on germination dates, yields, harvesting etc?
- Roadways, where is this farm located? What part of the country located? Are they all accessible by tractor?
- Fencing, is it electric, post and rail, hedgerows? Advantages and disadvantages of each?
- Shelter, sheds? Hedgerows?
- Grazing Methods (Strip/Paddock etc) explain all types, advantages and disadvantages of all methods?
Experiments: be able to describe a minimum of 6 experiments; a minimum of one from each heading.
- Ecology: Named habitat, field techniques used (quadrat, transect etc), biotic and Abiotic factors, recording of data, results and conclusion.
- Soil Science:
- Soil formation
- Soil texture
- Soil structure (profile, mechanical analysis, sedimentation)
- Soil composition (% air, % water etc)
- Chemical properties of soil
- Soil borne organisms
- Microbiology
- Milk, Silage, Soil
- Genetics
- Any aspect of breeding or variation in plants or animals.
- Plant Physiology: The structure and function of the plant
- Photosynthesis
- Germination
- Transpiration
- Plant/Water Relationships
- Plant nutrition
- Plant growth
- Plant reproduction
- Animal physiology
- The structure and function of body systems in a farm animal.