23 February 2023 - Flipbook - Page 38
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FARMFAMILY
FARMWEEK
FEBRUARY 07 2019
BYGONES
The news this
week
UFU RAPS MINISTRY
N
ORTHERN Ireland may have
to import potatoes for its own
requirements within a few
years if the present decline in
acreage continues.
This warning was contained in
a report submitted to last week’s
meeting of the Ulster Farmers’ Union
Executive Committee by the Potato
Committee.
An immediate meeting with the
Ministry has been called for – to be
arranged, if possible, for this week.
And if the union demands are not met
a direct meeting with the Minister
50
YEARS AGO
THE highest gust of wind in British
history up to this week in 1969
took place at Kirkwall on the
Orkney Islands. The isles, in the
North Sea off the coast of Scotland,
were rocked by winds of 136 miles
per hour.
THE Boeing 747, better known to
some as the Jumbo Jet, was flown
for the first
time. It took
off from
Boeing’s
Paine Field
airstrip in
Washington
on what was
to be a two and a half hour flight
but difficulties with a wing flap
meant the 335 ton jet had to return
after little more than an hour
in the air. It entered service on
January 22, 1970, flying from New
York to London.
GABBY HAYES, a character actor
that appeared in
countless American
Westerns, died at the
age of 83. Between
1935-39 he was
Hopalong Cassidy’s
sidekick, followed
by 44 movies with Roy Rogers. He
also appeared with Gene Autry,
Wild Bill Elliott, Randolph Scott
and John Wayne.
IT MAY not have made the news as
such, but it was worth recording
– Jennifer Aniston, best known
as Rachel in Friends, was born
at Sherman Oaks, California. The
daughter of Greek-born actor John
Aniston and American actress
Nancy Dow, she landed her role
in Friends in 1994, subsequently
winning a host of awards.
THE Barre Plan, the first step
in moving the Common Market
towards eventually becoming the
European Union, was presented
to the European Economic
Community by Raymond
Barre. Belgium, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands
and West Germany approved the
plan to coordinate their economic
and monetary policies in July
1969. Barre was a centre-right
French politician who later served
as Prime Minister of France and
stood unsuccessfully in the French
presidential elections in 1988.
SAINT Valentine, the third-century
Roman saint commemorated on
February 14 and since the High
Middle Ages associated with love,
was among the saints dropped
by Pope Paul VI from the Roman
calendar of saints through the
issuing of Mysterii
Paschalis, a motu
proprio. St Valentine’s
Day, however, continues
to be celebrated despite
the ruling.
Major James D Chichester-Clark is to
be sought.
The UFU Potato Committee believes
that weakness in the administration
of the potato scheme is a major factor
in the decline in the country’s potato
acreage.
The committee claims that the
Ministry stated in December that
subvention would have been
introduced immediately but for
the Christmas holidays. In fact, the
committee says, it was not brought in
until a month later.
The committee adds: “This delay
was damaging to potato growers just
as has been happening in other years
through hesitation in introducing
market support.”
It was emphasised that the market
price on which the Ministry has based
subvention payments is so high that
potatoes cannot be sold in Great
Britain with the result there is little
movement of potatoes off farms.
The Executive Committee shared
the fears of the Potato Committee
that importation would threaten the
potato health standard “on which our
valuable seed industry depends”.
Australia – a land of contrasts
P
ERRY Reid, the 27-yearold schoolteacher from
Dungannon who, as a
member of Castlecaulfield
Young Farmers’ Club won the
1968 P&O “Canberra” Award,
returned yesterday from an
eight months’ tour in Australia.
During his stay “Down Under”
Petty spent most of his time
in the states of Victoria and
Western Australia as guest of
the Young Farmers’ and the
Rural Youth Clubs.
In travelling thousands of
miles he became accustomed
to the contrasts of the vast
country, moving from 50,000
acre sheep or cattle stations to
small – by Australian standards
– mixed farms of 300 acres.
But
Western
Australia
brought many surprises –
having spent Christmas in the
sunbaked territory with the
temperature at 109 degrees,
he moved 200 miles south for
New Year to a region where the
maximum temperature only
reached 60 degrees.
One
morning
he
was
picking tropical fruit and in
the afternoon was visiting a
whaling station.
One surprise he didn’t
bargain for was the advent of
earthquakes – while he was
in a region where the shocks
were comparatively minor
he, nevertheless, found the
experience unnerving.
As a schoolteacher, Perry
was interested in the number
of agricultural high schools
in Western Australia, where
students from the age of 14 do a
full-time residential course.
There is, however, one
general high school where the
pupils, all day-students, may
take agricultural science as
an optional subject in the first
two years of their three year
course.
As well as studying the theory
they have an opportunity to
put into practice what they
have learned in the classroom
by working on the school’s 400
acre farm.
The school farm is run on
commercial lines with a herd of
50 Hereford AIS breeding cows,
the calves being suckled and
sold as baby beef between nine
and 12 months old.
The farm also runs 1,000
Merino sheep, about 100
acres of barley and oats are
harvested each year, and last
year 3,000 bales of hay were
saved.
ABOVE: Perry Reid.
45 animals make total of £4,500
B
Mrs Annie Barron, admires the show
medal.
120-year-old
show medal
M
R John Barron, of Fairview farm,
Knocknagulliagh Whitehead, has
in his possession a show medal
which is over 120 years old.
According to the inscription it was
awarded to one of his forefathers
for a two-year-old heifer exhibited
at a show organised in 1846 by
the “Carrickfergus and Kilroot
Agricultural Society”.
It is in perfect condition and was
engraved by I Parks.
The other side of the medal depicts
a cow, a sheep, a pig, a plough and
wheat sheaf with a farmhouse in the
background.
It is understood that this Society
was the forerunner of the present
Kilroot (one ‘l’ only) Agricultural
Society which, for over 60 years has
been running a very successful annual
ploughing match.
UYERS from all over Northern
Ireland – and one from County
Wicklow – were among an
estimated 500-strong crowd at the
dispersal sale of Mr George A Duncan’s
“Mainestream” herd of pedigree and
non-pedigree Friesians on his farm at
Hollybrook House, Randalstown, last
week.
Mr Jack Irvine, auctioneer of J A
McClelland and Sons, who conducted
the sale, said there was “absolutely no
hesitancy” on the part of buyers and
bidding was “very brisk”.
He added that the tremendous turnout of farmers at the auction was one
of the largest he had seen at a local
sale.
A total of 45 animals – 35 pedigree
and 10 non-pedigree – which came
under the hammer sold for just under
£4,500.
Mr Joe McCracken, Randalstown,
paid the top price of 210 guineas for a
pedigree cow, Mainestream Margaret,
and Mr Eric Bryson, Antrim, went to
36 guineas to secure a cross-bred
animal, Jill 8th.
Next highest price of 28 guineas
was paid by Mr J Cadoo, Millisle,
for an eight year old pedigree cow,
Mainestream Dibell.
Mainestream Pearl 4th was sold
for 185 guineas to Mr J A Patterson,
Bangor, and another pedigree cow,
Mainestream Dibell 3rd went to Mrs
Margaret Kerr, Toomebridge, for 157
guineas.
ABOVE: Auctioneer Jack Irvine
calls for a bid at last week’s
dispersal sale on Mr George
Duncan’s farm at Hollybrook
House, Randalstown.
Six young farmers represent YFCU
TRAVEL: The six Ulster Young
Farmers’ who will represent the YFCU
abroad this year. Pictured at a briefing
session in YFCU headquarters at
208 Antrim Road, Belfast, last week
are (from left) Rosemary Bunting
(Moira), Geoff Conn, chairman of
the International Visits Committee,
Wilma Munnis (Killraughts), Norman
Lowe (Downpatrick), Maureen Dillon
(Moira), Bernard McGirr (Garvary) and
Anna Dunn (Donaghadee).