Loughgall farmer Matthew Brownlee has been named The Co-Operative Food’s Outstanding Farmer of the Year at a gala awards ceremony in Manchester, beating off competition from farmers across the UK.

He began with a beef finishing and suckler enterprise in 2012 and now supplies 650 prime cattle per year to Dunbia.

He has also recently joined the Dunbia dairy calf-to-beef scheme, buying 12-week-old calves from Dunbia’s approved calf rearers, Gary Fitzpatrick and John Toland.

Anyone interested in the scheme should contact Kenny Linton at Dunbia.

Changes expected on lost tags

It is expected that rules surrounding cattle ID cross-compliance will be relaxed by DARD shortly, the NI Assembly’s Agriculture and Rural Development committee was told this week when hearing evidence on better regulation on farms.

Changes to the cross-compliance penalty matrix on missing tags, introduced in January 2014, were highlighted as an issue by the UFU at the meeting. The regulations state that if either 10% of a herd or more than 20 animals have single tags missing at inspection, then the farm is in breach of cross compliance.

Boggs wins grassland prize

The UK Grassland Farmer of the Year has been awarded to Co Down dairy farmer Colin Boggs, who runs a 120-cow herd near Banbridge.

The annual competition is organised by the British Grassland Society, with initial nominations coming from local grassland societies, including the Ulster Grassland Society (UGS). Judges score applicants on areas including grazing management, crop nutrition, reseeding policy, silage-making, business strategy and environmental management.

Colin’s herd is producing a total of 6,530 litres per cow at 4.35% butterfat and 3.50% protein.