A dairy farmer and member of the executive committee of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) from Co. Laois has been appointed to the Teagasc Authority for a five-year term.
Donald Scully, from Cherryhill House, Ballyhyland, Portlaoise, was appointed to the role by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue.
The appointment was confirmed by Teagasc today (Wednesday, February 2).
Scully was welcomed to the Authority at a meeting of its board today by the chairperson of Teagasc Liam Herlihy.
Herlihy congratulated Scully on his appointment, saying “I look forward to working closely with Donald on the Teagasc Authority”.
“He brings great experience and knowledge of farming and agriculture to the authority, both personally and through the network of the ICMSA,” Herlihy added.
Scully attended Rockwell Agricultural College in Co. Tipperary. His home farm has been in the Scully family across three generations and Scully took over developing the farm when his father retired in 1994.
The Laois man has a herd of spring-calving high-EBI pedigree Friesian Holsteins, run on the home farm and on rented land.
Scully replaces Tommy Cooke, who has stepped down from the Teagasc Authority, having completed two five-year terms.
Herlihy thanked Cooke for his contributions to the Authority’s meetings over the last 10 years.
He said: “Tommy has made a massive contribution to Teagasc through his work on the organisation’s Authority. I want to thank him for his commitment to Teagasc over many years.”
As a dairy farmer, Scully joins the Teagasc Authority at what is sure to be a significant time for the sector, following the announcement last Friday of a stakeholder taskforce to stabilise and reduce dairy emissions.
However, there are concerns from some farm organisations that this will result in an effective cap on production.
Scully’s present colleagues in the ICMSA have said that they will not accept any proposal that will place an “arbitrary cap on the sustainable productive capacity of Irish family dairy farms”.
This new stakeholder group – the Food Vision Dairy Group – will be chaired by former Teagasc director Gerry Boyle.