The Big Dealer: Irish dairy farmers donate milk to Yemen

I see a group of dairy farmers are coming together to help starving children in Yemen.

Those who saw the RTÉ News report recently of a father in famine-ravished Yemen feeding his malnourished baby with just water and sugar, due to a lack of milk, could not but be galvanised into action.

The suggestion is that every farmer in Ireland should donate the value of the milk from one cow for one day.

Longford farmer Mike Magan is one of the farmers behind the initiative. He wants farmers to lobby their co-op managers to work with the Irish Red Cross, which will distribute the aid on behalf of the dairy farmers of Ireland. The Dealer encourages every farmer to ring somebody to make this small gesture happen.

I see that the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) wants research to be carried out on the use of drones to be used on designated land.

Its draft report for measures for Natura 2000 land recommends that there should be “investigations into the use of new technologies such as remote sensing and UAVs to assess limitations and opportunities for their use”. A UAV, to you and me, is an unmanned aerial vehicle. I’d be very interested in looking at that research should it be carried out. I assume farmers would be notified of drones flying overhead?

Farmers are, I’m sure, closely examining the proposal to pay up to €400/ha to control rushes in Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).

Such a payment will be especially welcome among those in the Shannon callows, who have led the “compensation for designation” campaign for years now.

I wonder will IFA president Tim Cullinan apply for the payment, on the grounds that he is carrying out “Rushe control” by keeping his deputy president in check?

It’s often been said the IFA president watches their deputy more closely than they do the Department, although I understand Cullinan and Rushe are developing a good working relationship.

I see that Liam Woulfe has been reappointed for a five-year term on the Teagasc board. The Limerick man is a brother of Dairygold boss Jim Woulfe and is the managing director of Grassland Agro and Freshgrass Group. His fellow appointee is Longford native, Elizabeth Reynolds, who hails from a farm and is now a senior consultant with Ignite Purpose, having previously worked with GlaxoSmithKline focusing on consumer healthcare. The Dealer wishes them the best of luck in their roles.

The Dealer understands that midlands-based New Holland dealership WR Shaw is in the process of buying Lyons & Burton, another New Holland dealership which has two premises – one in Kilcock, Co Kildare and the other just outside Carlow town.

What could this mean?

At present, WR Shaw, from its Tullamore base, officially sells New Holland equipment in Offaly, Westmeath, parts of Laois and across a section of Tipperary.

New territory

It’s understood that if WR Shaw successfully completes the takeover of Lyons & Burton, it seems the firm will enter new agency territory in the southeast.

Shoved down the back pocket of jeans, folded and stained after a sale or handed eagerly to the bank teller, the humble cheque has been an important piece of paper to farmers.

But it looks to be falling out of favour with modern day consumers.

Banking and Payments Federation Ireland figures show a 15% drop in the use with 6.6m cheque payments in the first quarter this year.

Then again, with banks getting 50c/cheque it might be no harm to remember the old mantra “cash is king.”

I see that farmers can now tell the European Commission if they believe there is too much red tape in CAP schemes.

I’m informed the Commission is looking for farmers’ and the public’s views on the impact of the CAP on biodiversity and the administrative burden of schemes. Questions around the complexity of scheme applications and the time and effort put into those applications all feature. I hope there’s not too much red tape involved in filling out the survey.