The FBD €uro-Star €200 competition aims to reward farmers, both pedigree and commercial, for progress being made on their farms in relation to breeding indexes and on farm performance.

Over the past two weeks during the judging process I have met some of the most passionate people who have fully invested their time and energy into making progress on their farms. One of the best parts of the judging process was seeing these farmers make positive changes to their system.

Most of the farms I visited had either a son or daughter present at the visit or involved in the day to day running of the business and I wondered what was different about these farms and other farms I visited.

Number one was the air of positivity that was around the farmer and their business. If young people only hear negative things about beef and suckler farming, we will find it very hard to attract the next generation of young farmers into the beef industry.

Positive

This isn’t about glossing over the many problems the industry has but rather tackling these issues in a positive way. The farms I visited as part of this competition are all making money and they are all committed to a future in the industry. The family farm is unique to this country and we should all try to protect it. Seeing pedigree and commercial farms using breeding indexes as a tool to increase profits within the farm gate was also very encouraging.

No farmer talked about selecting heifers off paper, but rather taking indexes into account when making breeding decisions, something the index was designed for. All of the farms are concentrating on having a quality functional cow that does a job with minimum fuss, something a cow should do on every farm.

I’m confident that with farmers like these at the helm of our industry, the future is bright and the suckler industry is far from dead, something other commentators would like to believe.

The winning farmers will be presented with their prizes at an awards night being held in the Hodson Bay Hotel on Wednesday 5 December. All regional runners-up will receive €500 each, six regional winners will receive €1,000 each, and two overall winners will receive €5,000 each.

The winning farmers will be profiled in next week’s edition of the Irish Farmers Journal.