Home farm: farmer-orientated plc meetings

It has been unusually dry. Grass growth has certainly suffered and I am told the tillage crops are suffering moisture stress. I am not sure what the eventual effects on yield will be. I wonder if we should apply more nitrogen as all the work has shown that rainfall helps nitrogen availability and more may be useful in a very dry year.

Last week, two of the farmer-orientated plcs I deal with held important meetings.

Glanbia opened up a major depot just down the road from me a few years ago so after I began dealing with them I, along with approximately 780 other farmers, was offered the opportunity to buy co-op shares.

The price, at €5 per share, was no giveaway but after I went to the well-attended regional meeting in Portlaoise, I understood where the valuation had come from and that it had been discussed with the Revenue so that we would not run into the same tax problem as Kerry farmers did when they were given patronage shares that could convert into plc shares.

This assumes importance with the announcement of the forthcoming share spin-out and the transfer of the milk processing and agribusiness assets to the new entity, Glanbia Ireland.

As a farmer, I was most interested in the continuing commitment to pay bonuses on purchases and the fact that I am being given some plc shares as part of the general spin-out.

I am relaxed at the decision to reduce the co-op share in the plc as long as it stays above 25%. I have seen over the last number of years the Glanbia share price go from less than 50c to over €18.

The other important farming plc I do business with is FBD. I have had FBD Co-op and now plc shares since the beginning when I was a student in the late 1960s. This has been a rocky road, but it’s good to see a turnaround beginning. Despite all the corporate traumas, I have always found FBD competitive in price as well as being efficient and helpful in my local office.

It is interesting to see Liam Herlihy, the former chair of Glanbia take the role of chair at FBD. Let’s hope we will see similar success at FBD to that which he oversaw at Glanbia.