The View from Northern Ireland: The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (DARD) online services are designed to be farmer friendly.
However, a little extra assistance can help you get the most out of the various online services that are available. Most of the 10,000 DARD online services users are happy to carry out basic tasks, but with a little extra help as a user you could access even more information and functions.
CAFREtv is a video channel on YouTube. It has videos and information showing you some of the things going on at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) such as the new dairy unit opening or the recent soils and drainage event which took place at the Greenmount and Enniskillen Campuses.
A new set of DARD Online Service training videos has recently been added. These videos will help you as a DARD Online Services user to get the most out of DARD Online Services and includes information about services such APHIS Online, Online Maps and eSAF.
Google ‘CAFRETV’ and you will find the CAFRE YouTube channel web page. Set this page as a favourite on your browser to save you having to search for it in future. If you are not sure how, watch the video ‘How to login to DARD Online Services’ and you will see how I use the favourite option to set the DARD Online Services login page as one of my favourite web pages
If you sign into YouTube with your Google ID, you can subscribe to the CAFREtv channel, which will mean, amongst other things, that you will receive emails updating you when new videos are added or whenever somebody replies to one of you comments. Please feel free to leave comments and questions about the different videos. You may find that the issues you are having will have been resolved by other viewers who will be happy to give you their assistance.
Get the most from your new tablet or Smartphone
On the top of many folks Christmas list was a new tablet or Smartphone. If you were fortunate enough to get one of these useful gadgets, make sure you have it set up to allow you keep in touch with DARD.
If you are an APHIS Online user, go to your devices App store and download the APHIS Mobile app. The app is designed to work on a touch screen and makes checking your herd list, confirming your cattle purchases and registering your calves that little bit easier.
Don’t forget to setup your email address, so any correspondence from DARD will be sent directly to your tablet or phone. Once setup, your device will automatically alert you to all new incoming messages.
Setup or bookmark your favorite webpages to save you from having to type the web address every time you visit a site. Visit the website on your phone or table here and then tap the bookmark button at the bottom of the screen. If you use Safari (iPhone/iPad user), Chrome (android user) or Internet Explorer (Windows phone user) on your PC all your bookmarks can be automatically added to your PC browser.