From bovine to biofuel at ‘pageant of rural life’

IT was a day that featured talk about unmarked white vans delivering imported meat to hotels, restaurants and catering outlets, as if it was a scene from some James Bond film.

The importance of agriculture as an indigenous industry and the support structure it provides for rural life was underlined.

Government ministers, political and farm leaders, and the captains of the country's agri-sector mixed and mingled with clergy and other folk in the fine weather.

It was, of course, the country's premier agricultural show at Tullamore, a pageant of rural life that attracted an estimated 50,000 people to the sprawling 150 acres of the Charleville Estate just outside the town.

The organisers truly delivered on their promise to provide a cocktail of events that catered for interests ranging from bovines and beetroot to baskets and bulldogs and from baking to biofuel.

Incorporating the AIB national livestock show, the event cost €500,000 to stage and had more than 400 trade stands.

Entries of nearly 9,000 a 17% increase on last year included 1,600 cattle, 1,200 horses and 400 sheep.

It was essentially a fun day out for rural families, but the dominant talk was of falling cattle prices, rising oil costs and growing beef imports in a sector with 14,000 outlets selling food to the public.

IFA president John Dillon, referring to those unmarked white vans, said these had replaced 500 small abattoirs closed down in the past 10 years because of excessive bureaucracy and over-regulation by the Department of Agriculture and Food, leaving just 276 still operating.