The first meeting of the South Tipperary Young Farmers’ Discussion Group took place on Wednesday, January 2.

The event took place in Brosnans Bar, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, and Pat Prendergast from O’Connor and Julian Vets was the guest speaker on the night.

Prendergast delivered a discussion on ways to ensure optimum cow/calf health is achieved and offered advice to the attendees on things to look out for when purchasing calves.

The group’s founder, Tom Long – who is a member of South Tipperary Macra na Feirme – explained that he hopes the group will appeal to young farmers involved in all types of agricultural backgrounds.

Long outlined that one meeting will take place per month and each meeting will focus on a different topical issue or challenge in agriculture.

Some of the areas that the newly-founded discussion group aim to cover include:
  • Financial planning;
  • Breeding;
  • Animal nutrition;
  • Livestock health;
  • Farm buildings.

He added that the discussion group hopes to invite a guest speaker to each monthly meeting that has experience in a particular area.

The aim is for the guest speaker to discuss and offer detailed advice to group members on their area of expertise.

Anyone who is interested in joining the group can contact Tom Long on: 085-7264082; or Ronan O’Connor on: 087-7952646.