20


info@eastcorkjournal.ie


EAST CORK AGRICULTURE info@eastcorkjournal.ie


by President


An IFA delegation led Joe Healy


met with The EU’s Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels. The IFA President set IFA’s Brexit priori-


out


ties as spelled out in the recently launched policy document Brexit: The Im- peratives for Irish Farmers and the Agri-food sector. Speaking following the


meeting, Joe Healy said the engagement had been very constructive, “It is clear that Mr. Barnier and his team have a very good understanding of Irish ag- riculture and the very real threats posed by Brexit,” he said. “There is clearly a very difficult negotiation peri-


od ahead between the EU and the UK. The IFA was very clear that


Free between the


come must include a com- prehensive Agreement


the out- Trade


EU and UK, which would include the following spe- cific elements for agricul- ture and food: tariff-free trade


products and food; main- tenance


tor General, Damian McDonald; Director of European Affairs, Liam McHale; Chief Econo- mist, Rowena Dwyer; and, IFA Brexit Co-ordinator, Elaine Farrell. IFA will hold a major


Brexit event on Monday, 24th


for agricultural of equivalent


standards on food safety, animal health, welfare and the environment; and application of the Com- mon External Tariff for imports to both the EU and UK.” The


IFA delegation


meeting with Michel Barnier included Pres- ident


Joe Healy; Direc- April next. EU Com-


missioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan, the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, IFA representatives and industry leaders will speak at the event in Goffs, Co Kildare. The event is free for IFA members, and €50 for non-members. Places must be pre-booked however, email brexit@ ifa.ie or visit www.ifa.ie/ brexit to book your place online.


Confirmation That RSS Is A Farm Income Support Measure Important For Low Income Farmers & Rural Communities


ment


IFA Rural Develop- Chairman Joe


Brady has said confir- mation given by


the


Minister for Social Protection Leo Varad- kar that


the Rural


Social Scheme (RSS) is an income support initiative, is a welcome development as there have


been attempts


by his Department to make it a job activa- tion measure like oth- er social employment schemes. Joe Brady said


the


RSS is a vital support to 3,100 low income


farm families and to lo- cal communities where job opportunities are scarce and must


re-


main a standalone so- cial and community support measure. The Rural Social


Scheme involves a top- up to a person’s social protection payment, mainly Farm Assist. The IFA Rural De- Chairman


velopment


said the recent addition of 500 places is wel- come, despite the fact that the terms and con- ditions vary from those that apply to the 2,600


participants who have been in the scheme for some time. Joe Brady said social supports such as Farm Assist and RSS are vi- tal to maintain farming and rural communities. The recent changes to Farm Assist where the 30% income disregards and child disregards were reintroduced is a very positive outcome and IFA has acknowl- edged Minister Varad- kar’s role in this follow- ing a submission IFA made last year prior to the Budget.


Thursday, 20th


April 2017


Deadline Monday at noon IFA Meets EU Chief Brexit Negotiator In Brussels


• At a meeting with EU Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels this week, IFA President Joe Healy set out the key priorities for Irish agriculture in the negotiations, as spelled out in the recently launched IFA policy document Brexit: The Imperatives for Irish Farmers and the Agri-food sector.


Farmers Taking An App Savvy Approach to Calf Registration


Compliance Calving season 2017


is drawing to a close and this year more farmers are


savvy ever and used the Herdwatch


App for their calf reg- istrations direct to the Department


of Agri-


culture as part of their compliance require- ments. 62% more calves were registered through the app so far in 2017 compared to the same period last year, saving farmers an extra 4,416 hours on paperwork, which is 5 minutes per calf registered. With 14% of the Na-


tional Calf Births in Ireland being registered through the app, which


Tel: 021 463 8000 • Email: info@eastcorkjournal.ie • Web: www.eastcorkjournal.ie


getting more app than


is an increase of 9% on last year, it is clear to see that this is the way for- ward for calf tion compliance.


registra-


The Top 5 App Savvy Counties The top app savvy


counties for calf regis- tration are Cork, Tip- perary, Kerry, Limerick and Kilkenny, with their adoption increasing on average by over 50% during this year’s calv- ing season.


What Farmers are saying Liam O’Keeffe who


farms in Ballydesmond outside Mallow, Cork, where he is currently milking 70 spring calv-


ing cows and rearing their heifers, on his own says; “Calving down 70 cows on your own is a time and energy consuming task, but I don’t need pen or pa- per anymore to register the calves, and most im- portantly the informa- tion recorded is always 100% correct as the calf and dam are there beside me when I am registering them on the app. And you don’t even need 3G or Wi-Fi to do this.” David Lowry is farm-


ing with his Father John in Holycross, Tipperary, where


they are milk-


ing 66 cows along with running a Suckler Herd and finishing all the


eastcorkjournal


male animals born on farm. David is one of the app savvy farmers in Tipperary that registers all his calves through Herdwatch, he says; “it saves me hours and al- lows me to register the calves as I tag them. I don’t have to spend an hour or two in front of the computer any- more when I get off the farm.” Liam and David are


part of a growing com- munity of over 5,500 farmers using Herd- watch every day to manage their herds and eliminate farm compli- ance paperwork. You can start your 30-day free trial of Herdwatch at www.herdwatch.ie


@eastcorkjournal / #eastcorkjournal


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