First tonight, we heard from Joe Healy, President of the Irish Farmers Association. He’s been watching the emerging situation with MERCOSUR as regards beef in particular and he is very concerned at the latest reports that beef produced with significant environmental impact and a complete lack of EU standards particularly around traceability could flood the European market. He also spoke about the facts that are often missed as regards the actual carbon efficiency of agriculture generally and the situation that actually applies in Ireland
Matt spoke with Amy Forde, deputy news editor of the Irish Farmers Journal and initially discussed CAO issues as regards timelines and opportunities in the agricultural education sector. She was also spoke about the recent Oireachtas Agricultural Committee meetings covering, among other issues, the beef grid and feed lots. Amy also highlighted the recent large numbers of safety notices issued by the Health and Safety Authority in the agricultural sector. These mainly concern power take off (PTO) safety issues.
Pádraig French of Teagasc spoke to us by phone about their upcoming biannual Moorepak open day on sustainability and profitability on dairy farms.
We had the weekly Farm Diary, sponsored by Tullow Mart, their own Mart Report from Tuesday last with Eric Driver and George Candler joined us from Kilkenny Mart to give the Kilkenny Mart Report (sponsored by Kilkenny Mart).
