Poots visits North Coast farms

The Minister was accompanied by new UFU President Victor Chestnutt, AERA Committee Chairperson Declan McAleer MLA, AERA Vice-Chair Philip McGuigan MLA, and Mervyn Storey MLA.

The first visit of the day was to Garry Bog in Ballybogy, Ballymoney, and discussed potential benefits of hydrology in aiding restoration. Minister Poots then travelled to the dairy farm of Cathal and Conor Casey in Cloughmills to see the investment they have made in state-of-the-art calf-rearing facilities and robotic milking.

Minister Poots attended a UFU office bearers meeting in Ballycastle before visiting beef and sheep farmer Brian Jamieson’s farm in Ballintoy later in the afternoon.

Speaking after his visit, Minister Poots said: “I was pleased to accept an invitation from the UFU to meet with farmers and stakeholders in the north of Antrim to discuss a number of current issues, including Covid-19 recovery, future agri-policy and the wider needs of the industry and how DAERA and the farming community can continue to work in partnership to ensure the industry is sustainable in the long term.

“We also had the opportunity to visit Garry Bog and discussed how improving bog hydrology can help with the resilience of these sites to nitrogen impacts.

“Since my first day in office, I have supported and championed the agriculture sector and will continue to do so.”

Minister Poots was accompanied on the visits by the chair of the Assembly’s Agriculture Committee Declan McAleer.

The West Tyrone MLA said: “This was a very interesting series of engagements a great opportunity to meet farmers from different sectors.

“There were many issues raised including the implications of Brexit, the need to robustly tackle TB and the future shape of farm support, however our visits were dominated by the farmer’s stories of resilience, innovation and planning for the future.

“Whilst the COVID lockdown restricted our movements for the past five months, the partial lifting of these restrictions has provided a welcome opportunity to get out and meet the sector and hear directly from our farmers on the frontline. I am very thankful to Victor and the team at UFU for taking this initiative.”