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The search is on for Macra’s Club of the Year 2024 The Macra Club of the Year and Best New Member finals will take place at the Rally on Sunday 27th October in Lawlor’s of Naas. National Broadband Ireland are kindly sponsoring this competition for a fourth year in a row. Twelve clubs are through to the final of Club of the Year and twelve Macra members are through to the final of the Best New Member competition. Interviews will take place on Sunday 27th October. Clubs will be assessed on their involvement in the club’s local community, member engagement,...

In this long running saga of the 'forgotten farmers', Budget 2025 presents the last chance saloon for this group of farmers who missed out as a result of austerity cuts in 2008. Support for the forgotten farmers is included in the Program for Government and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie Mc Conalogue has made commitments at various Macra events that he will deliver for the forgotten farmers. Macra national president Elaine Houlihan said “I call on the Minister to give his full support and honor his commitment by putting in place the necessary funding in Budget...

Will budget 2025 deliver for young farmers, Macra asks Over the past number of weeks members of Macra have been lobbying elected representatives throughout the country along with their National President Elaine Houlihan meeting with the Taoiseach. “Our asks are simple, we need action now for succession, we need to see a succession scheme to aid the transition of farms throughout Ireland, to ensure there is a next generation of farmers,” said Ms. Houlihan Macra has highlighted over the past decade the need for our government to act on succession, with the increasing age of the farming population in Ireland...

The nitrates derogation is of huge economic importance to the Irish agrifood sector and the wider national economy. The nitrates derogation allows our grassland farmers to maximise the advantage of the Irish grass-based system while balancing the significant economic disadvantages that Irish farmers encounter compared to their EU counterparts. The current uncertainly around the future of the nitrates derogation is doing little to improve the water quality situation in Ireland, which in comparison to other EU member states, is relatively good. Extract from Retaining Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation – Common Objectives Read the full Document here (PDF 4 Mb) >>

  Christopher Cahill from County Cavan has been named the 2024 FBD Young Farmer of the Year. Christopher is a 30-year-old dairy farmer and a graduate of the Sustainable Agriculture Master’s degree from UCD. He entered a shared farming arrangement in 2021 with the assistance of the Macra Land Mobility Service and has since expanded the dairy enterprise from 110 cows to 250 crossbred cows. Christopher has also been named category award winner for Land Mobility. Along with farming Christopher also owns Cavan Grassland Consultancy Ltd, a grass measurement and management service provider across the north midlands area. The evening...