This year’s Annual Conference and Rally is hosted by the Roscommon and Galway Macra county executives.

The Rally will be a hive of activity, with everything from farm tours to whiskey-tasting and stockjudging to dancing the night away to the Tumbling Paddies to look forward to.

The weekend starts off at the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe on Saturday 28 October, at 10am, where all members will gather to head off for the farm tours and whiskey-tasting. The first farm is Dara Killeen’s, a dairy farmer in Meelick and previous Young Farmer of the Year winner.

Next is Mattie John Kelly’s farm in Dysart, who has a beef and sheep enterprise. At the same time, another (thirstier) group of Macra members will head over to Ahascragh Distillery to taste the finest whiskey that Galway has to offer.

After they return from their tours, all members will head to Macra’s mainline event, Ag Conference, in which the Minister for Agriculture will have to answer some tough questions from members and share how he is going to support our futures.

Macra already has a huge line-up of speakers ready to discuss the theme of “Feeding our Future”.

The National Competitions of Know Your Ag, sponsored by the Irish Farmers Journal, Stockjudging, sponsored by Bord Bia, and of course, Macra’s Best New Member and Club of the Year competition will follow, sponsored by National Broadband Ireland.

Tickets for the Tumbling Paddies can be found on Macra’s website at macra.ie.

All of the above activities require registration. You can contact the Rally chair Niamh Farrell on 085-841 8519 or follow Macra’s social media to keep up to date: @macranationalconference.