Silage and grazing presentations

Prizewinners in the Fermanagh Grassland Club's 2016 Vaughan Trust, Grazing Competition (front, from left) Olwen Gormley, Vaughan Trust, who presented the awards; Robin Clements, winner of the Stevenson Cup and Crystal Bowl as overall winner; Robert McCrea, winner of the Todd Cup, and Nigel Gould, competition judge (back row) Philip Clarke, Jason Elliott and Nigel Graham.

The grazing competition was sponsored by the Vaughan Trust and was judged by Nigel Gould, Beef and Sheep Adviser along with Matthew Alcorn.

Nigel said there was good evidence of good utilisation of grass and good quality grassland management, despite the difficult year.

He said they saw examples where farmers had tried to overcome the weather problems such as drainage and reseeding and matching grass variety types with conditions.

The results were;

Dairying – 1 (Stevenson Cup), Robin Clements; 2, Philip Clarke; 3 Nigel Graham.

Beef and Sheep – 1 (Todd Cup), Robert McCrea; 2, Roy Mayers; 3, Jason Elliott.

Overall winner – Robin Clements.

The silage making competition was sponsored by Barenbrug for the 11th year and the judges were David Linton, Barenbrug Area Manager and Albert Foster, a previous winner.

David Linton announced results as follows;

Under 900 tonnes – 1 (Hermon Cup), Robert McCrea; 2, Raymond Johnston; 3, Nigel Graham.

Over 900 tonnes – 1 (Tisdall Cup), Trevor Dunn; 2, David Keys and Robin West; 3, David Anderson.

The Houston Trophy, presented by the Club for the person who has made a contribution through his agricultural activities was awarded to Philip Clarke, Augher for his outstanding farm management.

The trophy was handed over by Club Chairman, Trevor Dunn.

The guest speaker for the evening was Damien O’Reilly, presenter of Countrywide on RTE Radio.

The next meeting of the Club is on Tuesday, March 14 with a speaker from Teagasc, Grange.