The jewel in the crown of the Macra na Feirme year has arrived as over 2,000 Macra members descend on Gormanston for the 2017 Macra na Feirme Rally this weekend, from 27 to 30 October, at the CityNorth Hotel and Conference Centre.

Hosted for the first time by Meath Macra, the Make It Meath Royal Rally 2017 is the culmination of over a year of hard work by the club.

As is tradition at this stage, the weekend will kick off with the Macra na Feirme/Irish Farmers Journal Know Your Ag 2017 Quiz national final before the rally embraces the Halloween vibe with its fancy dress theme of heroes and villains. On Saturday, attendees visit Country Crest and Kepak farms as part of the beef farm walk while those partaking in the dairy tour will visit Joe Leonard and David Moore’s farms in Meath.

Farm walks

Michael Hoey of Country Crest finishes large numbers of heifers each year for his ready-made meals business, Ballymaguire Foods. Country Crest Farming farms a total of 3,200 acres made up of cereals, both winter and spring, potatoes, onions and, in more recent years, the reintroduction of the beef herd. The beef farm will be the focus of the tour. Store cattle are brought in at a weight between 350kg and 500kg and finished to a weight of 650kg. It is a continental heifer herd with some purebred Aberdeen Angus and Hereford sucklers kept on the farm. Almost all of the feed for the herd is grown on the farm. The second part of the farm walk will include a tour of the Kepak feedlot.

David Moore is milking 160 cows in a liquid milk system that has embraced EBI and grassland management while maintaining production. Last year, the Fowlerstown Herd supplied more kilos of milk solids per cow than any other producer in the Glanbia pool. This herd had also produced bulls of note such as Fowlerstown Stan (FLT).

Joe Leonard is milking 500 cows in a low-cost, spring-calving system in partnership with Darragh McCullough. Cows are housed in open-topped cubicles, with a new rotary parlour being installed. Slurry is stored in a lagoon. Joe is a 2014 Nuffield scholar. His study was on stress management in farming in Ireland.

For those looking for something different, there will be a food safari across the Boyne Valley including Michael Finnegan’s goat farm and the newly opened Slane Distillery.

The Macra na Feirme annual conference 2017, iFarming – Farming in the Information Age, will take place on Saturday afternoon and will focus on the future of farming and the image of farming in the age of social media.

Contributors and speakers at the conference will include representatives from Alltech, Massey Ferguson, Country Crest, Teagasc, IFAC, Newstalk and Europa Bio.

Patrons’ night

The rally committee is trying something a bit different on Saturday night. Alongside the crowning of the Macra na Feirme club of the year and best new member, it will also be hosting a Macra na Feirme patrons’ night, where former members are encouraged to come along and reconnect with members they may have lost touch with.

As Macra looks towards its 75th anniversary in 2019, it is important for the organisation to recognise those who helped make the organisation the nationwide body it is today. The event will begin at 8pm on Saturday 28 October in the CityNorth Hotel and Conference Centre.

Meath Rally chair Dermot Connolly said: ‘‘This weekend would not be possible without our main sponsor Meath County Council and associate sponsors Keenan and Alltech. I would also like to extend my thanks to the many businesses who have sponsored and contributed to the event in whatever way they could. Their support is a true testament to the quality of the event we have planned.’’

As is tradition, the Macra na Feirme/Ornua beef and sheep stockjudging All-Ireland finals will take place on Sunday.

Speaking about the upcoming rally, Macra na Feirme president James Healy said: ‘‘It is a great honour for any Macra region to host the rally and I would like to congratulate and thank Meath Macra for their hard work and dedication in planning what is shaping up to be a magnificent weekend. From a social and informative point of view, I would encourage everyone to come along to Gormanston and Make It Meath for the 2017 rally.’’