Pia Schmidt Knudsen is a daily teacher at an agricultural school. Now she wants to bring her knowledge of pig production to those who do not have the same access to knowledge as Danes.
Article by Pia Schmidt Knudsen, lecturer in pig science at North Jutland Agricultural School, Lundbæk and member of The World’s Best Food.
Daily, I teach at North Jutland’s agricultural school, Lundbæk. As an extension of my work and my passion for pig production/production of good healthy quality food, I became a World’s Best Food (VBF) member.
One of the first articles I read from VBF was about the online global agricultural school FarminAcademy (FA). I just thought that sounded exciting. So I wrote to Jeanette Johnsen via the email address from the article that if she could use me, maybe I was interested, and then she called in a moment.
We had a LONG talk. You can’t have a brief conversation with Jeanette because she has about as many ideas about the FA as I do. I’ve been looking for something to invest a little bit of money in for a while now. When Jeanette needed a little money for the project, both my husband and I decided to invest in the FA.
I am also a content provider and have so far done two lectures. A fundamental course on what is a pig for an animal, and lectures on infection protection, since I think this is something that many productions need very much. And it’s something that everyone – no matter how much they know about the pig itself – can learn something from. I am brewing on some lectures for when the time is right. Those are going to be lectures on reproduction, the work of the gestational stable, and fetuses’ development. And then I will soon be doing something about the good weaning, as more countries will soon be weaning without the use of medical zinc. And whether you use zinc or not, good weaning is an essential time for the pig.
Uses the same knowledge daily
But I have a lot of other courses in the pipeline. My workload fluctuates from week to week, and it fits super well with the FA as I can do lectures when I have time. When I am already a teacher, it is relatively easy to do some lectures, as I am well into building PowerPoint, and I use together knowledge as in my daily job.
Something great about teaching at Lundbæk and FA is that it is a symbiosis. I get a vast international network that I can use when making study trips or sending students out for internships. Through my job at Lundbæk, I follow what happens in pig production. I can use that knowledge at the FA when I do courses. I also understand pig production out globally, which is also valuable for my job at Lundbæk.
Super exciting journey ahead
Besides, I think it is great to bring my knowledge into play for someone who does not have together access to the knowledge we have in Denmark. If my knowledge can help someone get better production and support a more sustainable and better local food production, it is a considerable good.
I am looking forward to learning much more about where the challenges lie. Both when we look at different countries, but also at the individual properties. What do others do that I can pass on to my students?
I think it’s going to be a super exciting journey, and I’m looking forward to seeing some of our ideas developed and brought into play and further developed.
Acknowledgements: many thanks to EUROPEA-Denmark, Pia and Charlotte (DK) 🙂
Photos: from Pia and Charlotte (DK)
Featured image: Pixabay Free Images
