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While the Seanad might be accused of elitism by some, with only TDs and university graduates given the vote, farmers might recognise some familiar faces.
Tipperary vet and former Fine Gael TD candidate in the last election, Mary Newman Julian, received an outside nomination from the Veterinary Council of Ireland. Her sister is well-known former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell, who lost her bid for re-election in Dublin Bay South.
Former Ulster Farmers’ Union president Ian Marshall from Armagh is to go for a Senate seat again, as is the Green Party’s agricultural spokesperson Pippa Hackett.
Also given the nod from the Green Party is Saoirse McHugh, who famously broke Green Party ranks to come out against the carbon tax.
Interestingly, Pippa is going for the Agriculture panel, while Saoirse will run for the Culture and Education panel.
Dairy farmer and Fine Gael senator Tim Lombard will also be looking to retain his seat.
While the Glanbia plc board is undergoing change, Glanbia co-op members again demonstrated their love of volatility.
Diarmuid Lally, who only won his board seat a year ago on Henry Corbally’s retirement, has lost out to Denis O’Sullivan in the northern region. Meanwhile, Jer Doheny and Eamon Power are both retiring from the board. John O’Regan replaced Doheny in north Kilkenny, while Robbie Barron succeeds Power in South Wexford. As both Power and Doheny are on the plc board, an opening now appears there, despite the reduction in co-op representation.
The Dealer was intrigued to learn about a new venture in agricultural education.
Rather than spending two years in agricultural college to attain the Green Cert, students can now get the same qualification by turning up to a course one-and-a-half days a week over nine months.
Over 120 people are already enrolled, travelling from all over the country to attend the pilot course, being held in a meeting room at a filling station in Cahir, Co Tipperary.
Pat Burke, the man behind the FarmEd venture, is no stranger to agricultural education. He received over €500,000 in CAP funding in 2018 from the Knowledge Transfer scheme through his agricultural consultancy business, which he has since sold to FDC. Apparently, Teagasc is not best pleased at being usurped in this area. The Pat Burke course, which is fully QQI approved, will be very attractive to people in full-time employment who need the Green Cert for tax and inheritance purposes.
The Dealer heard worried whispers from Dairygold in Mitchelstown when its Norwegian partner TINE last week reported reduced profits for 2019.
With production of the Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese to start in Mogeely this summer using milk from Cork and Tipperary, what would they do with all the milk if the Norwegians were forced to pull out of Ireland?
TINE had been running along nicely for the last five years at 6% to 8% operating margins but profit dropped from 1,537m Norwegian Krone (€1.49m) to 1,189m Krone (€115m) in 2019. TINE said this was partly due to establishment costs in Ireland and profit drops in Sweden. Irish production is due to start in spring 2020, and will take 150-200m litres of Irish milk per year.
Most of TINE’s international activity is in the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Sweden and the UK.
The Dealer is concerned there could be a glut of donkeys for sale after Department changes to ANC rules.
Only 50% of stocking requirement can be fulfilled by donkeys – bad news for some four-legged and two-legged farm dwellers.
Coincidentally, there was an interesting article on the BBC and CNN reporting that the commercial slaughter of donkeys in Kenya has been banned. Donkeys are vital to rural areas as pack animals, but numbers declined rapidly after increased demand for donkey meat and hide in China.
We could be shipping more than milk powder to Asia if we spin these ANC changes right.
Modern and vintage tractor drivers are urged to turn out this Sunday 8 March for the Roscommon Mart Tractor run.
Registration costs €20 and takes place between 10.30am and 12.30pm at Roscommon Mart, with the run setting off at 1pm.
The run is in honour of the late Tracey Brennan and all proceeds raised will be donated to the Mayo-Roscommon Hospice foundation.
Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed is heading to Chicago, for St Patrick’s Day.
He is one of eight Government ministers, along with the Taoiseach, who has been chosen to head abroad to fly the flag for Ireland on the patron saint’s day.
The Dealer feels the focus will be on clearing the way for Kerrygold butter into the US by removing the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in November.
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