Speakers confirmed for FCI Conference and Exhibition 2016

The speakers for the morning conference session of the Association of Farm Contractors of Ireland (FCI’s) National Conference and Exhibition 2016 have been confirmed for Saturday 12 March at the Hub, Cillin Hill, Kilkenny. The theme of the FCI morning conference will be recognising the role of farm contractors. It aims to highlight the important role that farm contractors play in achieving modern production efficiencies on Irish farms.

Klaus Pentzlin, president of CEETTAR and himself a working farm contractor, will address the meeting and encourage contractors to learn from one another. Independent farming consultant PJ Phelan, with more than 30 years of experience working with farm contractors, will deliver his new approach to helping contractors understand their costs. There will be a speaker from AIB addressing the issue of where the bank sees the role of the farm contractor in terms of its plans for the future of Irish agriculture.

FCI national chair John Sheehy urges all farm contractors to support the event.

“We know the importance of supporting our own sector by strong representation. The farm contractor sector needs a show of strength in order to get recognition for the important role that generations of machinery operators have played in supporting the emergence of what is now a world-class food industry,” says John Sheehy. “We aim to provide Irish farm contractors with this recognition through our Conference and Exhibition that will highlight our important role in farming, so we need all farm contractors to come to this important event,” says John Sheehy. This will be followed by lunch and an afternoon exhibition of machinery in the giant Cillin Hill exhibition centre. The exhibition event will be supported by a large number of farm machinery companies.

There will be a number of mini seminars running through the afternoon in conjunction with the exhibition, dealing with issues of the new RSA trailer rules, safety in contracting, insurance needs for the farm contractor business and an update on diesel fuel additives.