Leading dairy farmer to speak to Grassland
THE speaker at the Fermanagh Grassland Club’s first meeting of the 2022/2023 programme is Ed Payne, a dairy farmer from Tulsk, Co. Roscommon. The meeting is on Tuesday, October 11 in the Killyhevlin Hotel starting at 8pm.
Ed, a former recipient of a Nuffield Ireland Farming Scholarship completed in 2018, is involved in a major dairy farming operation of over 500 cows divided into separate herds. There has been significant improvements in grassland over the years to allow for the expansion of the dairy herd.
The farm which also involves his parents, was converted to dairying from suckler and sheep in 2011.
Ed is an advocate of having work life balances and ensures he has time off to pursue his own interests.
His Nuffield Scholarship was entitled;
“Farmers’ responsibility to become more competitive and sustainable employers.” His recommendations included that farmers themselves need to become aware of areas that must be invested in to become a competitive workplace such as having a parlour fit for purpose. He also recommended that there is an opportunity for the government to offer tax allowances to farm staff to
encourage more people to live and work in the more rural areas of the country helping to reduce urbanisation and decline of rural town and villages and that farmers need to play to the strengths of the industry to help attract labour away from other areas of employment.