Farming briefs

PAC Meeting Agricultural and plant contractors, there is a meeting tomorrow (Thursday, March 19) at the Longford Arms Hotel at 8.30pm. Current issues include hedge cutting and use of tractors and trailers. Attitudes to bio-energy crops Two final year science students at UCD are undertaking a study of farmers" attitudes to producing grass as a bio-energy crop. Questions regarding markets, potential for converting former set-aside land to biomass production, and characteristics of farming operations are included. In order to achieve accurate results, it is important to obtain completed responses from as many farmers as possible. Your response to the survey will provide valuable information to assist in developing bio-energy production in Ireland - completion is voluntary and anonymous. The questionnaire will take no more than ten minutes to complete. Further details about this project, the researches involved, and a summary of the survey results is available at ucd.ie/bioenergy. Call 01-7167733 with other queries. Follow the link from ucd.ie/bioenergy to complete the survey. Longford Ploughing The 75th Annual County Longford Ploughing Championships is on the farm of Raymond Kenny, Lismacmurragh, Ballymahon on Sunday, April 12. Attractions will include a major horse class with competitors from all provinces, a Loy competition, all junior, intermediate, senior and vintage classes and also a parade through the town of Ballymahon the morning of the match. The Novice Ploughing Match for 2009 takes place on Sunday, March 29 at the farm of Derek Stewart, Colehill, Co. Longford. All vintage class scores will be recognised by the Vintage Association of Ireland and count towards entry into the National Ploughing Championships. For more contact secretary Tom Bannon 087-9691176. Clarify FWM interest deal - IFA The IFA president Padraig Walshe says the association has confirmation from most lending institutions on the interest rates they will charge for outstanding monies owed under the Farm Waste Management Scheme - but it is important that these special rates are communicated without further delay to the bank branch network. By securing these special rates, farmers" creditworthiness will be protected so they can negotiate normal working capital for their businesses. The government guarantee means the monies owed to farmers under the FWM can be taken off the balance sheet, putting farmers in a strong position to negotiate further finance for normal farm business. Mr. Walshe said AIB will offer a rate of 1.5% over prime rate 2%. This gives a special FWM interest charge of 3.5%, which will reduce with the movement of interest rates. The IFA has expressed disappointment that AIB will not be notifying its branch network until mid-April of this special FWM rate. Farmers have to be allowed the opportunity to convert existing bridging finance to the new special finance rate without delay, it says. The IFA president was critical of the Bank of Ireland, which has so far failed to quote a rate on money owed by the government under the FWM Scheme. This is particularly disappointing given that the bank is getting €3.5bn under recapitalisation bailout. Mr. Walshe also confirmed that ACC will offer a rate of up to 3.5%. The Ulster Bank has confirmed it will charge 1.75% above the prime rate for bridging finance, and is prepared to take on new customers under this special arrangement. With regard to other lending institutions, the IFA is still awaiting confirmation of the rates they will charge but is insisting on a preferential rate. Sheep sector needs action The Cavan IFA County Sheep chairman Gerry McCabe called on Minister Brendan Smith to allocate unused single farm payments funds to the sheep sector. This he said was supposed to be announced by the end of February. The IFA has put proposals to the minister for a sheep maintenance ewe premium payment. There is €8m from the national reserve and €29m in unused single payments funds in 2010 available to the minister for this purpose. The IFA also advocates a top-up to hill producers. New dairy business degree A new dairy business degree programme launched in UCD last week will provide formal training and expertise for the dairy managers of the future. Speaking at the launch, IFA president Padraig Walshe said he was delighted to see that the initiative he had put forward at Moorepark in June 2007 was now coming to fruition. The first students will enrol next September and their coursework will be a mix of subjects such as dairy science and business, including accountancy, legal studies and economics. Part of the course will take place at the Teagasc Research Centre in Moorepark, covering all aspects of grassland and dairy herd management. Another important element will be a work placement abroad, probably in New Zealand. 'I believe the difficulties of the downturn make it imperative that we have professional dairy farmers equipped to deal with the challenges posed by the new market volatility in which they will operate,' said Mr. Walshe.