Farm Safety Week

This week (24 to 28 July) is Farm Safety Week, an initiative led by the IFA in Ireland. During the week, farmers are encouraged to assess safety on their farms, attend one of a number of farm safety events, or to avail of discounts on safety equipment available from retailers nationwide. See www.ifa.ie/farm-safety

Positive cattle trends

Indications that cattle numbers for the second half of 2017 will be much less that forecast paint a more positive picture on the beef trade for the remainder of 2017, livestock chair Angus Woods has said. Three factors are affecting the trade: the kill to date is up, as are live exports, while carcase weights are down.

RDP amendment

At a recent meeting, IFA rural development chair Joe Brady called for the Department of Agriculture to ensure the full utilisation of all EU and national funding in the Rural Development Programme (RDP) by making necessary changes to schemes and improving payments in the annual review to the European Commission.