SHARING OPTIONS:
Ciara Byers pictured in the milking parlour of her family farm outside Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan. \ Lorraine Teevan
I farm: “In Cavan with my parents Pamela and Nigel, my two younger brothers Matthew (17) and Aaron (15) and my grandfather Denzil (91) who is still quite involved in the farm. We milk 200 Holstein Friesians with 60% spring calving and 40% autumn calving.”
Farming: “The land isn’t too bad, we have a few hilly fields. There’s about 200ac and it’s mainly in one block.”
Winter milk: “We’ve always had winter milk. Growing up I didn’t know what other farmers were talking about when they said they had two months off! It’s always been Christmas morning you get up and open your presents and go and milk but we can balance the workload because so many of us have an interest in it.”
January 20, 2021 6:27 pm
Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has called on leaders in the Republic to support calls for the region’s agri-food produce to be included in the EU’s Free Trade deals.
The issue of mixed origin milk was raised in October when it was highlighted that around a third of the North’s milk crosses the border for further processing. The result of that combined processing is that the milk then becomes a ‘Mixed Origin Product’.
A large proportion of this is then traded internationally – some of which is sold through EU Free Trade Arrangements to ‘Third Countries’.
More than a third of Ireland’s total milk pool could be ineligible for key EU supports and may be locked out of lucrative Third Country markets as a consequence of Brexit.