AgriFest farming show -case to raise funds for Tubbercurry GAA
AgriFest, The Future of Farming in the West is a farming showcase taking place on Saturday 14 th April from 6p.m. in St. Brigids Hall, Tubbercurry.
With 40+ stalls exhibiting from local and nationwide business, together with keynote speakers on the topic of ‘what the future of farming holds in the West of Ireland’.
Stalls there on the day will include Aurivo, Progressive Genetics, FBD Insurance and more.
There will also be a monster raffle and auction with the highlight of the evening an auction of a pedigree Aberdeen Angus Heifer.
All proceeds from the event in aid of Tubbercurry GAA Grounds Development.
For further details contact Barry Brennan 087-6549042 or Trevor Matthews 086-2356662.
IFA President Joe Healy will be the keynote speaker on the day.
The IFA is Ireland’s largest farming representative organisation.
“Located just outside Athenry, Joe Healy is milking 85-90 cows. The Healys have been in dairying all their lives, but pedigree sheep was the main enterprise until more recently.
“After a year in New Zealand Joe’s father was still milking on the farm, so Joe set up a suckler farm on his own and helped with the dairy farm. Since his father died in 2005, Joe has ran the farm as a one-man unit, he got rid of the sheep and the suckler cows and built up the dairy cow numbers.
“I was caught with quota so it was whatever I could afford to buy.”
Today, the farm is made up of the 100 acres he inherited and he bought a further 50 acres that he had been renting for the previous 15 years.
“The number of dairy farmers around Athenry has dwindled in recent years, but in the essence I am reasonably typical of the average farmer around here.”
Healy was Macra President from 1995-1997. “Since the early 1990s I have been involved in farming politics, former President of Macra na Feirme, former Vice President of the European Young Farmers Association and a member of the milk quota appeals board and the Farm Apprenticeship Board.
“I am the former honorary president of IASTA (Association of Agricultural Science Teachers) and I am on the IFA Farm Business Committee.” Healy has written for the Farming Independ- ent for the past 12 years and says he has been highlighting farming issues for the last 12 years there, including the issues with the factories. www.agriland.ie