A top ploughman died in a farm accident in Wexford yesterday as some of his family were at the National Ploughing Championships in Offaly.

Cork native Oonagh Buckley tells Pádraig Hoare is keen to use this week's National Ploughing Championships to let people know the Workplace Relations Commission wants to help.

Teagasc has appointed Shane Kennedy as a potato and tillage advisor to work with growers in Dublin, Meath and Louth.

Farming is suffering while Teagasc is under resourced, the president of Macra na Feirme Seán Finan has claimed.

Buffer zones to exclude cattle from streams, rivers and lakes are being sought by the Friends of the Irish Environment.

Tributes have poured in for Paddy O’Keeffe, chairman of the Agriculture Trust and former Irish Farmers Journal editor, who died peacefully at his home in Ballyhooley, Co Cork.

The co-ordinator of Ireland’s first master’s degree in organic horticulture has welcomed trials of genetically-modified potatoes in a bid to beat late blight.

Trials of genetically modified potatoes are not at odds with promoting and researching organic systems in Ireland, organic producers have been told.

Environmentalists have been refused a High Court order allowing them the means to legally challenge Teagasc’s planned genetically-modified potato trials.

I’d left my Wellingtons outside the back door overnight.

Teagasc workers were treated to foreign junkets, nights at the greyhounds and horse racing meetings from a fund that should have been ploughed back into the semi-state agency.

Teagasc director Professor Gerry Boyle has defended the organisation’s plan to examine the ecological cost of harvesting a genetically modified late blight-resistant potato.

The Government has asked the EU Commission to extend the end of December, 2012 deadline for completion of work in the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) for Sow Welfare.

IMPACT claimed that Teagasc has been instructed by the Government to shed 109 posts by the end of the year.

FARMERS should be obliged to attain a safe farm certification similar to the construction sector’s Safe Pass, according to one farm safety expert.

TEAGASC should contract out courses to other educational bodies if it does not have the capacity to train the 700 would-be farm students turned away this year, says the IFA.

FARMERS are playing an increasingly vital role in creating a sustainable habitat for wildlife, claimed experts at the Teagasc-hosted Conserving Farmland Biodiversity conference in Wexford yesterday.

DAIRY farmers should not sacrifice milk quality while reaching for the 50% quantity growth sought by Food Harvest 2020, says the National Dairy Council (NDC) Dairy Farmer of the Year.

FARMERS in West Cork who deliberately start scrub fires during the closed season could face far stiffer penalties, including that of reckless endangerment which carries a jail sentence of up to 10 years.

TEAGASC has made an important step in the battle to protect Irish cereal crops against disease.

BY the end of 2014, only 200 Teagasc advisers may be left to do the work handled by 405 at the end of 2008, according to a stark warning from the organisation’s director on the effects of public service cutbacks and early retirements.

ENVIRONMENT Minster John Gormley stood beside Taoiseach Brian Cowen during the four-year austerity plan press conference last Wednesday and proudly announced the doubling of Ireland’s carbon taxes (as part of the Green party contribution to that plan).

AN EXTRA phosphorous allowance of 15kg/ha for reseeding at soil index 1, 2 or 3 will be part of the new national action programme (NAP) under the Nitrates Directive, agreed between the Government and the EU Commission.

ON a day that farmers were warned of the need for increased care in and around farms, the rural community lost another life following a tragic accident in West Cork.

IRELAND’s reputation for low-carbon farming should be harnessed to ensure that the authorities governing global agriculture promote Irish food production while capping outputs from less efficient regions, business leaders heard at a Teagasc conference at Dublin’s Mansion House yesterday.

DAIRY farm businesses cannot afford to wait for global economic recovery to resume their business growth according to Teagasc Pat Dillon, head of the Teagasc Animal Production and Grassland Research Centre, was writing in the current issue of Moorepark News.