Teagasc plan for resuming services
TEAGASC Regional Manager, Ger Shortle, outlines how normal services will resume on a phased basis.
The Government Roadmap for reopening society and business sets out Ireland’s plan for lifting COVID-19 restrictions in five Phases between 18th May and 10th August, 2020. Teagasc has developed its own plan, based on the Roadmap, to safely resume our services while ensuring we stick to all Government advice.
This COVID-19 restrictions have meant that Teagasc advisers couldn’t meet their clients so everything had to be done over the phone while working from home. This made the big job of getting BPS and Derogation applications and entitlement transfers done a lot harder but farmers and advisors adjusted quickly and we together we met the deadlines. The next challenge is to safely get back to normal service if we can.
Phased return to normal services
Teagasc is already doing some essential, contactless advisory farm visits if urgently requested by clients and from the 8th of June advisory visits will start again subject to the agreement of the advisor and farmer. These visits will follow a strict protocol to ensure Covid risks from are kept to a minimum. By June 29th we hope to have limited opening of our offices and we’ll have biosecure meeting rooms, with Perspex screens, where we can meet clients by request for essential consultations and under a strict risk-reduction protocol.
Grass Testing
Of course normal farming activity goes on and making good quality silage is just as important as ever for getting good performance from your stock and keeping costs down. Teagasc is providing its grass testing service on a contactless basis. If a farmer rings in to book a test and drops frozen grass samples at our office before lunchtime one of our advisers will test the sample in the afternoon and ring back with the results and advice. Clients are entitled free samples and for non-clients there’s a fee.
Digital Services
We’ve got new ways of delivering our other services too. Farmers have got used to online discussion groups and ‘virtual’ or ‘contactless’ farm visits and our students are being taught and assessed online and by phone. We’ve using social media like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to deliver advice through short videos, webinars, podcasts and virtual farm walks. The Covid-19 restrictions have speeded up the move to digital services and they will become a permanent and growing part of advisory work into the future.
Of course this phased return to normal service depends on all of us pulling together in a continuing push to control Covid-19 and we all have to remain vigilant to defeat it.