UFU Ards group focus

​The Ards Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) group have had a varied winter program in 2022 and 2023. It was great to catch up with familiar faces and have several new faces appearing throughout the year!

In November, we had speakers from AFBI, and also Paul Turley, regarding grass land management which was very well attended and proved to be a very interesting subject. It gave members time to discuss issues they were facing and also to learn from others about what was working well on their farms. The night proved to be very educational and informative.

In December, we were pleased to hold our very popular Christmas breakfast in Harrisons of Greyabbey, which was the first time in several years. The food was excellent, and everyone enjoyed the catchup with friends.

We then had UFU deputy president William Irvine with us for our meeting in February. Again, it was a very informative evening, and it gave members the opportunity to discuss issues they were facing at local level but also question the UFU on areas that they were focusing on.

The cereal competitions continue to be well supported at branch level and a special thanks to our local seeds and cereals commodity representative Tom Merron, for taking the time to judge our group competitions. Local group winners for the recent cereal competition were winter barley, Raymond, David and William Wilson.

Spring barley winner was Frankie, Christopher and Louise McCracken. The oats competition was won by Luke Dynes and winter wheat was won by John and David Matthews. We wish them the best in further stages of the competition.

We are on the move, but don’t worry we are not moving very far! After being located on the High Street for over 20 years we are moving to our new office on South Street in Newtownards.

We hope to be in our new office by September so please call in and see us. Like always if you have any queries, please call the office on 02891814218.