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YFC Wales Study Tour to Ireland
Between 13th and 16th of October, 45 members travelled to Northern Ireland for Wales YFC’s Rural Affairs annual study tour. We caught up with Angharad Thomas our Rural Affairs Chair to hear all about the trip.
“After sailing from Anglesey to Dublin and travelling to Northern Ireland, the first visit was Magheraknock Herefords which is Northern Ireland’s Hereford club President’s herd.
The second day started with a visit to Rowandale Farm. Here we saw a dairy farm that has diversified by pasteurizing and bottling milk and producing butter before selling it to households within the catchment area of 150 miles. The process on regulations regarding extending the shelf life of milk and butter was explained. They had a robot system on the farm, where the cows are kept in three sheds with two robots in each building. It was explained that they didn’t use antibiotics whilst drying the cattle.
We travelled to Corries Livestock by the afternoon, a beef cattle farm which had a shop on the farm. Their system was explained and it’s fair to say that many of us were surprised by the size of the sheds and the handling system that enabled a small number of workers to move the cattle. As part of the business, the farm has an annual auction at Ballymena market.
The evening was spent watching the Wales against Argentina game and Ireland against the All Blacks game, in the company of Ulster Young Farmers Clubs.
On a rather Wintery morning, we travelled to the Coleraine area for visits. The first to Millars livestock which has a herd of dairy cows and a flock of texel sheep, quality stock were seen here.
In the afternoon, it was a visit to Drumcroon Hous Farm, this was a beef, sheep and arable farm. The process Mark and his family had adopted was explained, of buying steers only online before breeding them to slaughter weight.
Monday morning before returning to the ferry, a visit to the Guinness Factory was had. On behalf of the Rural Affairs committee I would like to thank all the farmers for the welcome and the Young Farmers of Ulster for their friendship.”
The YFC Wales Agriculture Conference will be held on 13 and 14 January 2024 in Montgomeryshire.
