The merger of Fane Valley Dairies with Lakeland Dairies business in NI is set to take effect from the beginning of May.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that all staff of the Fane Valley dairy business have been consulted in recent days in relation to their transfer of employment as required under the statutory Service Provision Change (Protection of Employment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (TUPE).

According to our sources, the employees have been advised that the transfer is to occur on 1 May and milk collected from that date onwards is being purchased and processed by the newly merged business.

The merger process has taken considerably longer than anticipated, with due diligence and detailed legal ‘‘searches’’ running for almost nine months since the decision to merge was announced in early August last year.

The newly merged operation will be the second largest dairy processing business in Ireland, processing over one billion litres of milk per year under the management of Lakeland.

Fane Valley will have a shareholding in Lakeland Dairies and representation on the board of the enlarged business.

Fulton takes DARD’s top agri post

The successful candidate for the newly created post of head of food and farming within DARD is the former director of policy and economics within the Department, Norman Fulton.

In his new role, Fulton will answer directly to DARD permanent secretary Noel Lavery, and will be responsible for a wide portfolio within the Department, including the three CAFRE colleges and also the administration of all grants and subsidies.

Fulton is now effectively the top ranked civil servant in DARD with an agri-food background. His new remit includes providing professional and technical advice to the DARD minister, and comes with a salary in the range of £85,951 to £100,091 per annum.

Tyrone farmer killed in suspect bull attack

A dairy farmer from outside Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone was killed in a suspect bull attack on his farm last weekend.

Mr Nigel Murry, 54, milked Ayrshire cows, and was found lying in his yard by a neighbour on Saturday evening, with the bull nearby. It is understood that Mr Murray normally separated the Ayrshire bull from the cows before milking. Neighbours report that the bull normally had a quiet temperament. He was destroyed by a PSNI marksman later that evening.

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the circumstances around the death of Mr Murray, but the case again highlights the need for extreme care when working with livestock, particularly stock bulls. Mr Murray was laid to rest following a service at Aughnacloy Presbyterian Church.

Increase in online SAF applications

The number of Single Application Forms (SAF) completed on DARD’s online service has increased so far this year, a Department spokesperson has confirmed. On Wednesday, 5,763 applications to area-based payments schemes were completed online compared with 4,559 at the same time last year.

However, reports suggest that some farmers have had difficulty with the Government gateway log-on process, which can result in an error message being displayed.

The DARD spokesperson said that the Department was aware of this issue and had reported it to the Government gateway service provider.

“The advice given to users who reported the issue was to click on the ‘return to home’ link and they could then continue as normal,” they said. If problems persist, farmers are advised to call the SAF helpdesk on 0300 200 7848 or send a screenshot to DARD.