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IFA boss meets up with a member at the Irish Ploughing Champs.
Irish Farmers Association president Joe Healy has been in the top job only a few months.
The genial Galway dairy farmer was swept into office in April after a major upheaval and controversy involving his predecessor and the executive and senior staff of the IFA.
He came not from the hierarchy, but from grassroots farming and has been elected to sort out major administrative problems.
Healy runs 100 cows on his 50ha farm at Athenry, a town steeped in Irish history, including the 1916 uprising. He runs a grass-based system with the emphasis on producing milk as cheaply, and as high in protein and fat, as possible.
Because of his new role, the fields of Athenry are something he seldom sees.
Healy’s happiest memories are of 1988, a year he spent in New Zealand – a great experience
“I first worked on a dairy farm in Manaia, South Taranaki, and went from there to Canterbury where I worked on a farm at Hinds, which had border dyke irrigation.”
He also worked on a Putaruru, Waikato, farm and lastly for a drainage contractor in Wellington. “It was the best year of my life – the freedom of it all.”
Back in NZ again in 1996, he represented Ireland in the world sheep shearing championships in Masterton -- another great month, and the Golden Shears an incredible event.
“What is great here in Ireland is that our Ivan Scott recently set a world lamb shearing record,” he says. “A few Kiwis are not too happy about an Irishman taking a world shearing record. He only beat the record by one, but it was a record all the same.”
Healy is a great admirer of NZ rugby but would love to see Ireland beat the All Blacks.
“Unfortunately Brian O’Driscoll failed to in his career – but we are still hoping. We have to play the All Blacks twice in the next two months, but honestly I wouldn’t be putting my money on my team; but then we live in hope.”
• Peter Burke travelled to Ireland courtesy of Enterprise Ireland.
The Irish Minister of State for Rural Communities says his country and New Zealand face very similar challenges on a range of issues related to agriculture, including climate change, biodiversity and rural depopulation.
In the rural landscapes of New Zealand and Ireland, a shared agricultural heritage thrives, built on a strong mixture of tradition and innovation, with mirror image climates earning both countries global acclaim for their food quality and sustainable agriculture.
Sean Leslie and Casey Tilson from Middlemarch, with horses Beau and Dough, took out the Rural News Horse Plough award at the Power Farming NZ Ploughing Championships at Horotiu, near Hamilton, on April 13-14.
The mood is relaxed as father and son ploughmen Paul and Derek Houghton get some practice in, but when the national championship starts this Saturday it will be a different story.
MPI director general Ray Smith reckons NZ has a lot to learn from the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority – called Teagasc (pronounced ‘Chog us’).
Claims that farmers are polluters of waterways and aquifers and 'don't care' still ring out from environmental groups and individuals. The phrase 'dirty dairying' continues to surface from time to time. But as reporter Peter Burke points out, quite the opposite is the case. He says, quietly and behind the scenes, farmers are embracing new ideas and technologies to make their farms sustainable, resilient, environmentally friendly and profitable.
Relationships are key to opening new trading opportunities and dealing with some of the rules that countries impose that impede the free flow of trade.
Dawn Meats chief executive Niall Browne says their joint venture with Alliance Group will create “a dynamic industry competitor”.
Tributes have flowed following the death of former Prime Minister and political and business leader, Jim Bolger. He was 90.
A drop in methane targets announced by the Government this month has pleased farmers but there are concerns that without cross-party support, the targets would change once a Labour-led Government is voted into office.
Farmer shareholders of meat processor Alliance have voted in favour of a proposed $270 million joint venture investment by Irish company, Dawn Meats.
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