Successful Kiwi dairy farmer Leonie Guiney has just been re-elected to the board of Fonterra, the New Zealand co-op has announced.
Guiney, along with former chair of the Zespri kiwi fruit co-op Peter McBride, claimed two of the three director positions. A further vote is needed to find a third director as no other candidate secured the required 50% of votes cast.
Guiney, whose interests with Irish husband Kieran extend across four farms, was previously director of Fonterra between 2014 and 2017.
She has been an outspoken critic of the co-op’s decisions to invest outside what she considers its core milk processing business. Earlier this year, Fonterra won a court order to ban her from speaking to the media on internal Fonterra business.
Leonie Guiney. \ Donal O'Leary
Dairy farmer at top table of Cork GAA
West Cork dairy farmer, Kevin O’Donovan, emerged from the Croke Park appointment process to fill the position of full-time secretary of the Cork county board last week.
It is regarded as one of the most important administrative seats in the GAA, outside headquarters.
O’Donovan replaces one of the association’s most prominent administrators, Frank Murphy, who steps down after 45 years in the job.
O’Donovan holds a BSc degree in Agriculture and a PhD from University College Dublin.
A man of many talents, he has also won RTÉ all-Ireland drama festival titles as an actor and director.
Scoring 1-8 for his club, Kilmeen-Kilbree, of their 1-13 tally in their Junior C championship win at the weekend, he could easily be described as a man who is busy on, off and in fields.
As the saying goes, if you want a job done, ask a busy person to do it.
Meanwhile, the current chair of the Cork GAA board, Tracey Kennedy, is no stranger to the agricultural arena.
She is a former press and communications officer with the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association.
Meat industry going the distance
The Dealer was intrigued to see how last week’s Bord Bia-led trade mission to Indonesia and Malaysia was the first dairy-only trade mission.
There were no representatives from any Irish meat companies participating in last week’s trade mission as a number of market access issues remain to be solved for both markets.
However, not to be put off by such minor details, I see Cormac Healy of lobby group Meat Industry Ireland (MII) hopped on a plane to Kuala Lumpur for the final days of the trade mission and wrangled himself a meeting with the meat import authorities of Malaysia.
Irish access
Whether Irish meat gets access to the Malaysian market or not, at least the members of MII can rest assured they have a lobbyist willing to go the (often extreme) distance on their behalf.
Grants for MF35s the way to go
Agricultural consultants were discussing ways to address climate change when one of them remarked that a rise in carbon tax was certain to increase fuel prices in the future, hitting farmers with big tractors.
“Farmers are enormously overpowered,” the consultant said. “There should be a subsidy for a Ferguson 35.”
Pot of money for Canadian farmers
This week’s Irish Farmers Journal podcast asked visiting members of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) what the main farming news story was in their countries at the moment.
Drought impact in Sweden, elections in the US were unsurprising answers... And in Canada? “We’re the second country in the world to legalise marijuana, so now farmers are trying to figure out how they can take advantage of this legalised commodity,” said IFAJ president Owen Roberts.
Department of agriculture officials in Colorado are advising on the growing of marijuana.
There are not one, not two, not three but four judges lined up for the Queen of the Land which takes place from Friday to Sunday night in Tullamore, Co Offaly. The 30 participants will be judged by Anna-Marie McHugh, National Ploughing Association assistant managing director; Joe Healy, IFA president, Gerard Clarke, managing director of the Clarke Machinery Group; and Emma Birchill, reigning 2017 Queen of the Land.
I see that Teagasc has appointed a new sheep specialist, Damian Costello (right), to cover the western region.
Damian is well versed to the terrain, having initially worked as a REPS adviser in Clare and Galway after joining Teagasc in 1996 and in recent years as a drystock business and technology adviser.
Successful Kiwi dairy farmer Leonie Guiney has just been re-elected to the board of Fonterra, the New Zealand co-op has announced.
Guiney, along with former chair of the Zespri kiwi fruit co-op Peter McBride, claimed two of the three director positions. A further vote is needed to find a third director as no other candidate secured the required 50% of votes cast.
Guiney, whose interests with Irish husband Kieran extend across four farms, was previously director of Fonterra between 2014 and 2017.
She has been an outspoken critic of the co-op’s decisions to invest outside what she considers its core milk processing business. Earlier this year, Fonterra won a court order to ban her from speaking to the media on internal Fonterra business.
Leonie Guiney. \ Donal O'Leary
Dairy farmer at top table of Cork GAA
West Cork dairy farmer, Kevin O’Donovan, emerged from the Croke Park appointment process to fill the position of full-time secretary of the Cork county board last week.
It is regarded as one of the most important administrative seats in the GAA, outside headquarters.
O’Donovan replaces one of the association’s most prominent administrators, Frank Murphy, who steps down after 45 years in the job.
O’Donovan holds a BSc degree in Agriculture and a PhD from University College Dublin.
A man of many talents, he has also won RTÉ all-Ireland drama festival titles as an actor and director.
Scoring 1-8 for his club, Kilmeen-Kilbree, of their 1-13 tally in their Junior C championship win at the weekend, he could easily be described as a man who is busy on, off and in fields.
As the saying goes, if you want a job done, ask a busy person to do it.
Meanwhile, the current chair of the Cork GAA board, Tracey Kennedy, is no stranger to the agricultural arena.
She is a former press and communications officer with the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association.
Meat industry going the distance
The Dealer was intrigued to see how last week’s Bord Bia-led trade mission to Indonesia and Malaysia was the first dairy-only trade mission.
There were no representatives from any Irish meat companies participating in last week’s trade mission as a number of market access issues remain to be solved for both markets.
However, not to be put off by such minor details, I see Cormac Healy of lobby group Meat Industry Ireland (MII) hopped on a plane to Kuala Lumpur for the final days of the trade mission and wrangled himself a meeting with the meat import authorities of Malaysia.
Irish access
Whether Irish meat gets access to the Malaysian market or not, at least the members of MII can rest assured they have a lobbyist willing to go the (often extreme) distance on their behalf.
Grants for MF35s the way to go
Agricultural consultants were discussing ways to address climate change when one of them remarked that a rise in carbon tax was certain to increase fuel prices in the future, hitting farmers with big tractors.
“Farmers are enormously overpowered,” the consultant said. “There should be a subsidy for a Ferguson 35.”
Pot of money for Canadian farmers
This week’s Irish Farmers Journal podcast asked visiting members of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) what the main farming news story was in their countries at the moment.
Drought impact in Sweden, elections in the US were unsurprising answers... And in Canada? “We’re the second country in the world to legalise marijuana, so now farmers are trying to figure out how they can take advantage of this legalised commodity,” said IFAJ president Owen Roberts.
Department of agriculture officials in Colorado are advising on the growing of marijuana.
There are not one, not two, not three but four judges lined up for the Queen of the Land which takes place from Friday to Sunday night in Tullamore, Co Offaly. The 30 participants will be judged by Anna-Marie McHugh, National Ploughing Association assistant managing director; Joe Healy, IFA president, Gerard Clarke, managing director of the Clarke Machinery Group; and Emma Birchill, reigning 2017 Queen of the Land.
I see that Teagasc has appointed a new sheep specialist, Damian Costello (right), to cover the western region.
Damian is well versed to the terrain, having initially worked as a REPS adviser in Clare and Galway after joining Teagasc in 1996 and in recent years as a drystock business and technology adviser.
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