26 January 2023 - Flipbook - Page 39
FARM WEEK
FARMFAMILY
TAKING A LOOK
BACK INTO THE
FARM
WEEK
NOVEMBER 09 2017
ARCHIVES OF
YESTERYEAR
Willy John
STRICTLY PERSONAL
NOVEMBER 07, 1967
Mr Stanley Bingham
By Dobson
50
years
ago
this
week
“I
wish he’d make up his mind. He must have smuggled
the same pigs backwards and forwards half a dozen times
so far!”
T
HE bonus incentive
scheme to market fat
cattle through the
meat plants, which was
announced in September by
the Minister of Agriculture,
Major James D ChichesterClark, still has its critics.
One of them is 40-year-old
Mr Stanley Bingham, who
farms 600 feet above sea
level at Ballymacareney,
Ballyward, near
Castlewellan.
Mr Bingham, who runs a
herd of beef cattle on his
100-acre farm, has some
“reservations” about the
whole system of grading on
the hoof.
“As I see it,” he said, “and
my view is shared by many
other farmers, the main
problem about the bonus
incentive scheme is that
once the cattle have entered
the factory the producer
has no redress; he has no
option but to accept what is
offered.”
Mr Bingham added that
those producers who
participated in the scheme
had automatically forfeited
their traditional marketing
right of being able to say
“No” if the price offered was
inadequate.
A member of a family
with a traditional farming
background, Mr Bingham
enjoys the farming life –
“despite the hard work and
the frustrations” – but is
not too optimistic about
future prospects in Northern
Ireland.
The scarcity of labour,
he says, will be one of the
major problems confronting
tomorrow’s farmer.
“Today, the labour
crisis is very much
with us,” he says, “and
one can only wonder
what it will be like in,
“Over the past decade,” he
say, 10 years from now.
said, “we have taken a really
“There is a big drift
outward looking policy towards
of labour from the
the large scale production of
land to industrial
quality cereal seed, geared
areas, where there is
to meet the needs of the
the attraction not only
modern arable farmer, whose
of big wage packets
requirements are consistent
but much better
quality at a price reasonable
working conditions.”
enough to warrant large-scale
A member of the
usage.
Closkelt branch of the
“To satisfy these requirements
Ulster Farmers’ Union,
we have introduced Agricede
Mr Bingham says
brand cereal seed to uniform
that in spite of all the
standards of approval in the
criticism voiced about
field, in the processing plant
the union he thought
and finally in every bag we send
farmers were a lot
out. This this policy has been
better off with it than
successful is in no doubt.”
they would be without
it.
Mr Bingham, who
grows 25 acres of
barley every year and
has a 1,300-strong
laying flock in addition
to his beef herd, says
that his work leaves
him little time for
hobbies or pastimes.
“In what little spare
time I do have,” he
adds, “I enjoy reading
agricultural literature
– reading about
new methods and
techniques employed
in farming elsewhere
and generally trying
to keep abreast of
developments in the
industry.”
Mr Bingham is
married with four
children, whose ages
range from six months
to seven years.
Belfast firm appointed cereal seed agents
A
N agreement was
signed at a conference
in Belfast on Friday
between A L Bennett and Son
Ltd, Lincolnshire, and Samuel
Stewart (Belfast) Limited,
granting the Belfast firm the
sole agency for the marketing of
Agricede – a fine cereal seed –
SIGN: Seated to sign the agreement for
the agency are Mr Brian Massey (left) Sales
Director of A L Bennett and Son Ltd, and
Mr J A Lewis, director of Samuel Stewart
Ltd. Looking on are Mr R English, left, sales
manager of Samuel Stewart Ltd, and Mr S T
Monk, production director of A L Bennett and
Son Ltd.
throughout Northern Ireland.
The conference, which was
followed by a dinner, was
attended by two directors of
the A L Bennett organisation,
Mr B Massey and Mr S T Monk,
representatives of Samuel
Stewart (Belfast) including Mr J
A Lewis, director, Mr R English,
sales manager, and their sales
and advisory staff.
In announcing the launching
of this marketing project in
Northern Ireland, Mr Massey
stressed that his company was
ideally situated in the centre
of Lincolnshire, where really
first class seed production was
contracted in vast acreages.
All set for best-ever ploughing international
W
ORLD class ploughmen from
West Germany and England
arrived in Northern Ireland
over the weekend for the International
Ploughing match at Downpatrick on
Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Yesterday the visiting competitors and
officials attended a reception given by
the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Alderman
W D Geddis, at the City Hall, and
following this some of the ploughmen
put in a little practice in the fields near
Downpatrick.
In the evening they attended a
reception given by East Down Rural
Council in Downpatrick.
The Southern competitors are due to
arrive in Northern Ireland this morning
and the day will be given over to
practice.
Another step forward in the
arrangements for the international
39
match was taken last week, when
officials went down to mark out the
ploughing plots and also to allocate
space for the trade stands, which,
in variety and attraction, will be a
greater “pull” than ever for thousands
of farmers and others throughout
Northern Ireland interested in
ploughing.
The ploughing area has everything
to commend it. Its car parking space is
ample and all who attend the match will
be able to have an excellent view of the
actual ploughing.
In addition, farmers will be able to
see a variety of machines in action,
including a hedge-cutting machine,
which is one of the recent additions to
the “machinery in motion” events.
Officials of the National Ploughing
Association will be there to see how
Northern Ireland rises to the big
occasion.
In addition to the ploughing, East
Down Farmers Ltd will be throwing
open their new grain storage and drying
plant, a few miles from the site. An
invitation has been extended to farmers
to visit it on Wednesday or Thursday.
The plant is most interesting and
already many farmers from over a wide
area have been to see this “combined
exercise,” run by 16 mid-Down farmers.
The Prime Minister and the Minister
of Agriculture will visit the match on
Wednesday, along with the president
of the Ulster Farmers’ Union, and on
Thursday the Minister of Commerce,
Mr Brian Faulkner, who lives not many
miles from the ploughing site, will be a
visitor.
RIGHT: Mr Joe McAleece, of
Tullyhogue, Cookstown, the Ulster and
British champion horse ploughman.
