Pat Deering was the most high-profile casualty of a hotly contested battle among 25 candidates for the 11 agriculture panel Seanad seats.

The outgoing chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Agriculture, a farmer from Carlow, lost his Dáil seat in February's general election, and was again left disappointed following Tuesday's count.

Outgoing independent senator Victor Boyhan topped the poll, with Fianna Fáil's Denis O'Donovan following closely behind. Fianna Fáil have taken four seats in all, with Niall Blaney, Eugene Murphy and Westmeath farmer Paul Daly, the outgoing Fianna Fáil Seanad spokesperson for agriculture all successful. It meant Cork man Kevin O'Keeffe, son of Ned and brother of dairy and pig farmer Pat, lost out.

Deering's Fine Gael colleagues Tim Lombard and Michael D'Arcy, also farmers, were both elected. D'Arcy became the second serving minister to be elected to the Seanad in two days, following Sean Kyne's election from the cultural and educational panel on Tuesday. Kyne is a former farm consultant and REPS planner. Their party colleague Paddy Burke was elected for a seventh time, and his 27-year unbroken stint in the Seanad will continue.

Pippa poised

Offaly farmer Pippa Hackett, the Green Party's agriculture spokesperson was elected following 20 counts, avoiding the fate of her party colleague Saoirse McHugh. McHugh polled strongly on the cultural and educational panel, but a lack of transfers meant she lost out in the end.

The Labour Party's Annie Hoey also reached the quota on the 20th count. Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan, the former MEP, was elected without reaching the quota, holding off her party colleague Gerry Murray.

Former ICSA president Patrick Kent and Ian Marshall, the former UFU president also failed in their bid for election. Marshall was an outgoing senator, having been appointed by an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

In all, 43 seats will be decided over the coming days, across a range of vocational panels. The voters for these seats are current TDs and county councillors and outgoing senators. Six seats are filled from the university panels, voted for by graduates of Trinity College Dublin (three seats) and the National University of Ireland (also three seats). The remaining 11 seats are in the gift of an Taoiseach.