An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has weighed in on the Keelings debate, saying that while agriculture workers are essential, he had not “envisioned” hundreds of seasonal workers flying into the country.
No one expects the Taoiseach to have powers of prophecy but he could expect to be better briefed, considering his Department of Business had issued 500 permits to the horticulture sector long before the Keelings controversy for harvest 2020.
These permits were for non-European Economic Area workers, not taking into account the traditional seasonal workforce from the EU.
Across the pond in England, producers are flying Romanian workers in after a call for a British “Land Army” fell flat. Volunteer numbers dropped from 36,000 to less than 6,000 as they realised the full scale of work involved.
Keelings accounts for 50% of Ireland’s strawberry crop and needs up to 900 seasonal workers.
By last Friday, it had received just 40 applications locally in Ireland and 150m strawberries can’t be picked through a Zoom call, no matter how good your internet speed or the recently unemployed Irish, it would appear.
Can farmers cash in on oil crisis?
These are strange times, with US crude oil prices dipping into negative figures.
The shortage of available storage saw producers paying to get people to take oil off their hands. The barrel of oil was worth less than the barrel.
It’s only a matter of time before we see adverts in Toplink for slatted tanks available to store 200,000 litres of crude oil for a monthly charge.
Could diesel prices get to a similar pitch? We’d have contractors getting drivers to haul silage the longest route possible to use more diesel. Unlikely, unfortunately. And the higher carbon tax will eat some of the price drop from 1 May.
Could slatted houses become storage tanks for crude oil?
Coolmore purchase price revealed
Coolmore has bought a lot of land in Tipperary in the last decade but the price per acre is not always public knowledge.
Browsing the Sunday papers at the weekend, a story about one of the first and biggest farms the bloodstock empire bought caught my eye in the Sunday Independent.
There is a court case in the offing relating to the late and well-regarded tillage farmer Tony O’Reilly, whose 600ac farm in Grange, close to Clonmel, was acquired by Coolmore in 2013.
At the time, the sale price was believed to be in excess of €10m.
Now, the current court case, relating to the later sale of O’Reilly’s pig farm, has confirmed the 2013 farm sale to have been more than €11m. That equates to over €18,300/ac, including the land and outbuildings.
Farmers rush to buy weanlings
The Dealer has heard the mart trade was hot but it went to a new level in Ballymahon Mart, Co Longford, last week. It’s understood the mart went about organising a tender sale, similar to lots of marts around the country.
Cattle were assembled as normal but some buyers were not adhering to social distancing guidelines. The gardaí were called and advised those gathered of their obligations under the COVID-19 measures.
Gardaí then cleared the mart, which was stripped of its licence to sell cattle under the new COVID-19 mart measures.
The Dealer understands that the gardaí did not have to impose any legislation or the new regulations during the incident.
IFA on the line to members
The IFA is at times criticised for losing touch with its own grassroots, but one current initiative must be praised.
Its staff members are contacting every single member of the organisation to check in on their welfare.
With over 70,000 affiliated members, that is a considerable challenge.
What’s the response? Some farmers want to talk marts and cattle or milk prices, but most are just glad to have a chat.
Worthwhile project
It should never be forgotten that many farmers live on their own, and they should always be remembered, by their neighbours first and foremost, but this is a worthwhile and laudable project.
Being a conscientious farmer with too much time on his hands because of the pandemic visiting ban, The Dealer decided to get cracking on some scheme box ticking.
This involves the weighing of calves and cows for the second BEEP scheme or BEEP BEEP, as The Dealer likes to call it. But the word BEEP puzzled the man in the local co-op that rents out scales until he trumpeted: “You mean the sucky calf scheme!”
“I suppose I do,” said The Dealer.
An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has weighed in on the Keelings debate, saying that while agriculture workers are essential, he had not “envisioned” hundreds of seasonal workers flying into the country.
No one expects the Taoiseach to have powers of prophecy but he could expect to be better briefed, considering his Department of Business had issued 500 permits to the horticulture sector long before the Keelings controversy for harvest 2020.
These permits were for non-European Economic Area workers, not taking into account the traditional seasonal workforce from the EU.
Across the pond in England, producers are flying Romanian workers in after a call for a British “Land Army” fell flat. Volunteer numbers dropped from 36,000 to less than 6,000 as they realised the full scale of work involved.
Keelings accounts for 50% of Ireland’s strawberry crop and needs up to 900 seasonal workers.
By last Friday, it had received just 40 applications locally in Ireland and 150m strawberries can’t be picked through a Zoom call, no matter how good your internet speed or the recently unemployed Irish, it would appear.
Can farmers cash in on oil crisis?
These are strange times, with US crude oil prices dipping into negative figures.
The shortage of available storage saw producers paying to get people to take oil off their hands. The barrel of oil was worth less than the barrel.
It’s only a matter of time before we see adverts in Toplink for slatted tanks available to store 200,000 litres of crude oil for a monthly charge.
Could diesel prices get to a similar pitch? We’d have contractors getting drivers to haul silage the longest route possible to use more diesel. Unlikely, unfortunately. And the higher carbon tax will eat some of the price drop from 1 May.
Could slatted houses become storage tanks for crude oil?
Coolmore purchase price revealed
Coolmore has bought a lot of land in Tipperary in the last decade but the price per acre is not always public knowledge.
Browsing the Sunday papers at the weekend, a story about one of the first and biggest farms the bloodstock empire bought caught my eye in the Sunday Independent.
There is a court case in the offing relating to the late and well-regarded tillage farmer Tony O’Reilly, whose 600ac farm in Grange, close to Clonmel, was acquired by Coolmore in 2013.
At the time, the sale price was believed to be in excess of €10m.
Now, the current court case, relating to the later sale of O’Reilly’s pig farm, has confirmed the 2013 farm sale to have been more than €11m. That equates to over €18,300/ac, including the land and outbuildings.
Farmers rush to buy weanlings
The Dealer has heard the mart trade was hot but it went to a new level in Ballymahon Mart, Co Longford, last week. It’s understood the mart went about organising a tender sale, similar to lots of marts around the country.
Cattle were assembled as normal but some buyers were not adhering to social distancing guidelines. The gardaí were called and advised those gathered of their obligations under the COVID-19 measures.
Gardaí then cleared the mart, which was stripped of its licence to sell cattle under the new COVID-19 mart measures.
The Dealer understands that the gardaí did not have to impose any legislation or the new regulations during the incident.
IFA on the line to members
The IFA is at times criticised for losing touch with its own grassroots, but one current initiative must be praised.
Its staff members are contacting every single member of the organisation to check in on their welfare.
With over 70,000 affiliated members, that is a considerable challenge.
What’s the response? Some farmers want to talk marts and cattle or milk prices, but most are just glad to have a chat.
Worthwhile project
It should never be forgotten that many farmers live on their own, and they should always be remembered, by their neighbours first and foremost, but this is a worthwhile and laudable project.
Being a conscientious farmer with too much time on his hands because of the pandemic visiting ban, The Dealer decided to get cracking on some scheme box ticking.
This involves the weighing of calves and cows for the second BEEP scheme or BEEP BEEP, as The Dealer likes to call it. But the word BEEP puzzled the man in the local co-op that rents out scales until he trumpeted: “You mean the sucky calf scheme!”
“I suppose I do,” said The Dealer.
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