Eardly tillage demo day

Eardly Agri Services of Kilkenny will hold a tillage demo day this Thursday, 17 August, just outside Kilkenny city near Foulkstown Church on the Waterford Road. The event will take place from 10am to 8pm and will focus on the TAMS II Tillage Capital Investment Scheme. There will be a wide range of machines on show at the event including equipment from Amazone, Bomford, Gregoire Besson, Zetor, Merl0 and APV.

Agricultural mechanisation course closing date

It has been a big week for school-leavers with the release of the Leaving Certificate results and FTMTA congratulates the Leaving Cert 2017 class on their achievements. We wish all those applying for courses, which will ultimately lead them towards a career in the agricultural machinery industry at home and abroad, well with their applications over the coming days.

School-leavers interested in pursuing a career as service technicians in the farm machinery industry will be aware of the looming closing date for receipt of applications for admission to the BSc (agricultural mechanisation) course in IT Tralee is this Friday 18 August. The application form and further information are available from the courses section of the IT Tralee website.

The course is a direct entry programme outside of the CAO process and, to apply for a place on the course, prospective students, in addition to meeting the required educational standard, must have been accepted by a sponsoring farm machinery business who will provide the required work placements. Proof of acceptance by a sponsoring farm machinery business is an essential part of the application process.

The FTMTA believes that this course, designed with the input of the machinery industry will produce the calibre of highly skilled and qualified personnel required by the sector and its customers in the future and the association wishes this year’s candidates well with their applications.

The start of the coming academic year will mark the first occasion when there will be students at all three years of the course and the FTMTA looks forward to the first graduates completing this stage of their studies during 2018.

FTMTA farm machinery trade auction

Interest in the FTMTA farm machinery trade auction to be held, in conjunction with Paul Cooke Auctions, at Punchestown Event Centre near Naas on Saturday 30 September continues to grow apace.

FTMTA members interested in entering lots into the auction are encouraged to do so as early as possible to allow the lots to be well marketed in advance to potential bidders. That said, lots will be accepted until the week prior to the auction if space allows but such lots will obviously not get as much exposure in advance of the event.

Many of the lots entered so far can be viewed at www.paulcookeauctions.com with many more to be added in the coming days. Member firms of the FTMTA can obtain further information about the auction by contacting the association’s offices at 045-4 09 309 or by emailing membership@ftmta.ie .

FTMTA AGM

The 2017 annual general meeting of the Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association will take place at 12 noon on Thursday 7 September at the FTMTA offices near Naas. Full details in connection with the AGM, including the agenda and associated material, have been issued, by email only, to member firms in recent days.