Cork club Donoughmore Macra joined an elite group of Macra clubs over the weekend after retaining the club of the year award.
Earlier that day, Macra members attended the annual agriculture conference – the theme this year was ‘‘reaching your farming potential’’. Speakers on the day included 2012 FBD Young Farmer of the Year Dermot O’Connor and Munster AI vet Doreen Corridan. They were joined on stage by the Minister of State for Food, Forestry and Horticulture Andrew Doyle. They discussed how young farmers today can improve their technical skills to get the greatest return from their farm.
Later, Irish and Munster rugby player Donnacha Ryan and John Concannon, managing director of JFC Manufacturing, discussed how they have maximised their potential in their respective careers and what they have learned that young farmers of today could apply to their own careers.
During his address to the crowd, Macra president Seán Finan called for grazing infrastructure to be included in TAMS, ‘‘including farm roadways, water infrastructure and underpasses’’. He said: ‘‘We all need to look within the farm gate and encourage all farmers to identify efficiency that can be found within the farm gate and, at a political level, implement policy ideas, which will strategically develop and grow the industry.’’
A significant number of Macra competitions also took place over the rally weekend. Ferbane/Banagher Macra took home top prize for the Irish Farmers Journal Know Your Ag quiz, Fergal Buckley of Mallow Macra won best new member and, in the Bord Bia stockjudging competitions, Edmond Curtain of Freemount Macra topped the grade in senior beef, while Darragh Barron of South Kildare won the under-23 beef grade and Conor Corcoran was the winner of the sheep category.
As is tradition, the weekend finished with a banquet on Sunday night, at which president Seán Finan said: ‘‘I would like to thank Yvonne Daly and all the Limerick rally committee members for their hard work and endeavour throughout the past 18 months and in particular for their efforts over the weekend to make the 2016 rally one to remember. All of Macra na Feirme thanks them for their efforts and we would also like to take this opportunity to wish Meath Macra well as they take up the baton for rally 2017.’’
Listen to young farmers talk about their future at the Macra rally in our podcast below: