Farmers' burning questions to be answered at Department stand

Farmers will be able to talk to Department of Agriculture officials about a range of topics or issues at this year’s Ploughing.

Located at block 3, row 21 and stand 338, Department officials will be on standby across the three days to answer any burning questions farmers may have.

The latest regulation farmers must comply with is registering for the National Fertiliser Database, which came into force on 1 September.

Farmers who have not yet registered can seek advice and help in registering. Even those who do not have any stocks of fertiliser or do not intend on buying fertiliser must register before 15 October and declare “nil stocks”.

Meanwhile, as TB reactors continue to rise, farmers can talk to the Department about their individual cases or any fears they may have around TB. For young farmers, questions around registered farm partnerships, the Young Farmers Scheme and TAMS will be answered.

The satellite-using Area Monitoring System, known as the “eye in the sky”, introduced this year is another issue farmers can raise with the Department.

Organics

The 4,000 farmers either in conversion or completely converted to organics can seek advice, while those who may be interested in joining the scheme can also find out more information from officials. Farmers can also discuss any of the new CAP schemes announced this year, including ACRES, the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme,the National Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme and National Genotyping Programme.