December 1st 2014

The Roscommon branch of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association hosted a winter farming update last Thursday at The Core in Roscommon Town. A number of interesting presentations on key issues regarding farming during the winter were given during the course of the evening, as well as an update on the agreements made at the beef roundtable talks. Local vet Donal Flynn MVB gave a useful talk on fluke lifecycles before describing key symptoms and treatments for fluke, which are most problematic at this time of year. Solan Kelly and Damien Conboy of J. Grennan & Sons then presented advice on beef winter finishing diets, how to ensure smooth transition from one diet to another and optimal ewe pregnancy feeding.

ICSA Policy Officer Geoff Hamilton outlined ICSA’s red card campaign, which has to date collected signatures from over 4,000 farmers pledging their support to withdraw from Quality Assurance unless there is movement from the factories on specifications, age, movements. He then covered the key points of the beef roundtable agreement from the middle of November. Roscommon ICSA Chairman Charles Clarke then chaired an open discussion on the beef crisis, which provided engaged and interesting input from the floor. He also reminded those attending the meeting of ICSA’s call for a regulator for the beef industry, which was broadly supported.

“I would like to thank all those who attended and spoke at this meeting, and I’m sure everyone got something useful from it,” said Mr. Clarke. “ICSA will be continuing the rollout of our red card campaign in various marts over the coming weeks.”