National Co-Op Farm Relief Services honours retiring board member

THE National Co-Op Farm Relief Services (FRS) has paid tribute to retiring board member Bill O’Brien.

A former Teagasc CAO for Kerry (which his colleagues described as “a great honour for a Corkman”), O’Brien completed his MAgrSc thesis on the need for relief milking services in Ireland.

FRS Network chief executive, Peter Byrne, said: “Bill had a very significant input into the decision to rationalise the organisation over recent years, culminating in the amalgamation of 13 FRS Co-ops into the new FRS Network Amalgamated Societies Ltd.

“He has always taken a very objective view of the organisation using his years of experience in working with farmers and farm organisations to great effect with training and updating FRS operators and promoting the use of new technology.”

Mr O’Brien has been a most active and valuable member of the FRS board from its formation in 1980 until his retirement.

He has served under four chairmen since he chaired the original committee set up by Macra na Feirme in 1978/1979.

When employed as an agri adviser with the Cork County Committee of Agriculture in 1970, he helped to establish the Bride and Blackwater Farm Relief Service in 1971.

He visited Kanturk and Bandon during the 1970s with Sean Hegarty from Moorepark. At the request of local farmers, the idea of a National Farm Relief Service was raised.