The DeCourcey Harvest Working Day will take place this bank holiday Monday (August 6).
The site will once again be in Harbour View, Kilbrittain (Co. Cork). Activities will take place on the farm of club member Derry Desmond.
Local site
The club has expressed its thanks to Derry for making the site available for a second time.
Continuing its support of local charities, 2018 will see funds raised donated to The Margaret O’Dwyer Fund, Kinsale Carmelite Friary Renovation Fund, Ballinspittle De-Fib Group and West Cork Rapid Response.
The 2018 harvest day will apparently feature “many new additions to the range of exhibits”.
Dr. Jason van der Velde of Rapid Response will demonstrate a topical farm safety exercise. This exercise will involve several different elements of the emergency services, coordinating in response to a simulated ‘serious accident’ in which a person becomes trapped in a machine.
The intention is to raise awareness of safety and also to educate people on how to respond to such an incident. Preparations for this have been underway for some time; the club says that it will be “very realistic”.
Land Rover anniversary
The event will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the launch of the Land Rover in 1948. In keeping with this, the club has gathered together all manner of such vehicles.
Meanwhile, the usual activities – reaping, binding, combine harvesting, tilling and a whole host of traditional (mechanised) farming tasks – will also feature.
Club members have a number of restoration projects currently underway, including some vintage combine harvesters (that will likely debut at Monday’s show). In addition, several steam traction engines are expected.
AgriLand attended last year’s event; there were plenty of eye-catching machines to see, including this unusual (certainly in Ireland) Dania self-propelled forage harvester (pictured below).