The Big Dealer: Limerick man elected vice-chair at Kerry Co-op

I see Limerick native Martin Crowe has been elected at the new vice-chair of Kerry Co-op.

A dairy farmer from Doon, Crowe also works as an agricultural consultant. He was elected unopposed at the recent AGM of Kerry Co-op, where Mundy Hayes was also re-elected unopposed as chair of the co-op. The word on the street in Kerry is that the board of Kerry Co-op was called into a meeting last Thursday by senior management in Kerry Group to give its blessing to a potential $26bn deal between Kerry Group and DuPont’s nutrition division.

After a presentation from Kerry Group CEO Edmond Scanlon, the co-op board gave their support for the deal.

However, by Sunday, the DuPont deal was off after Kerry lost out to rival IFF.

This week saw a return of tractors to Dublin. Around a dozen tractors held up the city centre, which had been cordoned off by gardaí in anticipation of their arrival.

As various bands of independent farmers continue to fracture further, a planned protest outside a distribution centre by a different group was called off.

This comes after retailers agreed to attend the next Beef Market Taskforce meeting in January.

However, it seemed the group parked outside Kildare Street felt the meeting needed to take place sooner.

A group of four tractors were the first to arrive, with 50 more promised. In the end, it was a fraction of the number that made the journey in November.

I see that an Angus bull was excluded from last weekend’s Irish Angus elite sale in Carrick-on-Shannon because of the new muscling gene rules introduced.

The new rules were brought in to exclude bulls that carry two copies of the myostatin genes.

That seems very broad to The Dealer.

Surely the society only wishes to exclude bulls with the disruptive mysostatin genes, and not ones which could be of benefit?

The bull in question tested positive for two copies of F94L.

This gene doesn’t cause double muscling, but instead increases muscularity without affecting calving traits. Hence its nickname, the “profit gene”. Surely this can only be positive for a breed?

I see a big cheque was presented to Pieta House last week.

Jim Parkinson, Estelle Parkinson, Jack Ryan and Adam Woods, of this parish, all jumped from a plane 10,000-ft up the sky in October. I’m told that Jim, a suckler farmer from just outside Cashel, was blown off course for a while on the way down but, like a good homing pigeon, found his way back to base.

The four managed to hand over a cheque for €12,085 to Pieta House to help fund its important work around suicide.

Joe Duffy’s Liveline came to the rescue of a Mayo turkey farmer, after he revealed an order for 70 turkeys for Christmas had fallen through two weeks ago.

John Tedders from Shrule, Co Mayo, was in quite the predicament after the order was cancelled. However, he later contacted Countrywide on Saturday to say that after his phonecall to Joe, he received between 600 and 700 emails, Facebook messages and the phone is still ringing with people looking to take a turkey or two off him. People “called in their hundreds”, the organic farmer said. All the turkeys are gone now except for three: one for himself, one for his sister and of course one for Joe Duffy.

For €4 you can feed Rudolph and the reindeers this Christmas Eve, with the proceeds going to Embrace Farm and local charities in Wexford.

The feed, by the Kehoes in Foulksmills, needs to be ordered online by this Friday, if you want it delivered on time for Santa and the reindeers.

When sprinkled on the lawn on Christmas Eve, the Kehoes say the reindeer will see the feed sparkle and they will stop by for a treat.

I hear that the IFA’s outgoing Connacht regional chair Padraic Joyce, Ulster/North Leinster chair Nigel Renaghan and farm business chair Martin Stapleton are considering running for the job of IFA treasurer.

The term of the current treasurer, Tim Cullinan, will end in January. Another election to look forward to.

Watch this space.