Sorry I can't offer any help with finding an online course, there didn't seem to be anything quite like what you're after, perhaps that's something to consider when I come to start teaching here on our holding...
I would say it's probably best to attend a short course to start with, I went on several before I got any animals and after, and I bought more than one book on each animal just to make sure I had all the info, there never seemed to be one that covered it all!
However there is no substitute for hands on experience and nothing I had read or seen prepared me fully for the actual caring of animals - it is a steep learning curve! The internet is massively helpful, esp You tube for showing you how to do just about anything, and forums like these, when questions crop up as you go along.
I was trained in conventional horticulture/agriculture at Uni but I've just done a permaculture design course to help me focus my ideas for our veggies and also including our animals in the design for the farm. In my newly enlightened opinion I think everyone should farm/live the permaculture way, it just makes so much sense!
Nothing like this was taught to us ag/hort students, probably still the case, and that's a crying shame. I'm also slightly cynical that the big machinery, seed and chemical companies have a lot to do with making sure that's all they're taught
But it's a case of pulling different ideas from each aspect or person growing or farming with permaculture principles in mind, and making the design fit for me. I've done a lot of research and there's tons more to do, no two places are alike so you'll probably find that's how you'll get to your ideal solution.
The biggest cons are that permaculture pretty much flies in the face of everything we do now and I sound like a nutter sometimes trying to convince people to see things differently!!! You would have to re-think most of what you eat - permaculture gardens don't look like allotments or mono crops in fields, you won't find a lot of the things we love to eat now in a forest garden e.g. annual crops, it tends toward permanent planting and perennial crops. Plus the heavy reliance on fossil fuels etc make most of modern agriculture/horticulture unsustainable, there would be no ploughing and seeding of crops every year, no swathes of pasture mown neatly, a very different prospect.
I don't say I completely agree with it all, and I can't imagine life without certain things we take for granted now. I think there is a compromise to be had - did anyone see Countryfile with the horses pulling the machinery? That to me is a good example of making ourselves more sustainable without drastically altering what we eat.
Whereabouts are you? I would imagine there will be someone on here with knowledge of a local course or even just a willing smallholder to introduce you to some of their animals?
I'm happy to talk or PM me if you want?
Topic: Distance learning! (Read 3151 times)
