SCHOOL EDITION 24 APRIL 2024 - Flipbook - Page 7
FARM WEEK
NEWS
NOVEMBER 09 2017
7
First nursery season great success for NI Sheepdog Handlers
T
HE Northern Ireland Sheepdog Handlers’
Association held a meeting on Monday,
November 6, at Moneymore Old Courthouse to
arrange its Nursery Final. There was a good turnout
and a very enjoyable productive meeting took place.
There were four nominations for judges with the
names put into a bowl and one drawn out. The
Nursery Final will be at Ballymullock Road, Larne,
by kind permission of Robin McNinch on Saturday,
December 2, starting at 9am and will be judged by
Kieran McFadden.
There will be catering and toilet facilities on the
field and everybody is welcome to come along and
see the young dogs put through their paces in the
two classes. There will be no admission charge and
programmes will be for sale on the field.
The Chairman Brian Kelly thanked all for
attending the meeting and supporting the new
association and reported that the first nursery
season had been a great success and with over 40
members on the books it had received more support
A
GRIBUSINESS Aurivo, which
is headquartered in the
north west of Ireland, has
announced that it will host
three free information evenings in
the coming weeks for farmers who
are facing fodder shortages this
winter.
Many farmers are preparing
for a winter of uncertainly due
to prolonged rainfall across
large parts of the Aurivo trading
region since July. These adverse
weather conditions have resulted
in farmers being unable to harvest
silage crops and, in some cases,
livestock have had to be housed up
to six weeks earlier than normal
putting extra strain on winter feed
supplies. The rapidly rising price
of native straw due to poor grain
harvests is adding to the problem.
than expected.
The feedback from members was good and all
were happy and enjoying the nursery trials and
were looking forward to the Nursery Final and also
the Northern Ireland Championship which will take
place next year in May.
The Chairman also said that he would like to
take this opportunity to thank the businesses and
supporters who sponsored cups and trophies for
these two events. The trophies and cups were on
show at the meeting and members were pleased
with the array of items that had been put up in the
first year of the association being formed and was
a good sign that it could go on from strength to
strength.
RIGHT: A great display of trophies and cups at the
Northern Ireland Sheepdog Handlers’ Association meeting
at Moneymore Old Courthouse recently.
Free ‘action plan for fodder
shortages’ events planned
Farmers are invited to attend one
of three free information evenings
hosted by Aurivo, at which experts
from its Homeland and Nutrias
brands will offer practical advice
and support on predicting fodder
needs and calculating potential
shortages, steps to reduce demand
on current supplies, managing
silage ground that could not be
harvested and utilising strong
grazing covers in challenging
underfoot conditions.
A representative from Mental
Health Ireland will also discuss
how the pressure of such shortages
can impact on farmers’ wellbeing
and representatives from financial
institutions will be on hand to offer
advice on managing additional
expenses this winter.
The events are taking place at
the following locations:
Donegal: November 13 – Dorians
Hotel, Ballyshannon at 8pm;
Sligo: November 15 – Sligo Park
Hotel, Sligo at 8pm;
Leitrim: November 23 – Bush
Hotel, Carrick on Shannon at 8pm.
Commenting, Stephen Blewitt,
General Manager of Agribusiness
at Aurivo said: “We’re committed
to helping farmers across our
region through this challenging
time. The uncertainty makes it
a very stressful time for many
of them and when it comes to
preventing unnecessary panic in
spring time, the importance of
early intervention now cannot be
underestimated.
“The temptation can be to
buy whatever feed is available,
however, calculating feed demand
and deficit can help reduce costs in
the long run. I would encourage as
many people as possible to come
along to one of our information
evenings for support and advice
from our team of experts across
the Homeland and Nutrias brands
and I would like to thank the team
from Mental Health Ireland in
advance for making themselves
available to offer support.”
Aurivo has a network of 32 agri
and lifestyle retail stores; dairy
and sports nutrition brands, four
livestock marts, an animal nutrition
business and it exports dairy
ingredients to over 50 countries in
markets as diverse as Afghanistan,
Iraq, Nigeria, Congo and Costa Rica.
