Ifac, Ireland’s farming, food and agribusiness professional services firm, in partnership with Aurivo and Teagasc, will host a farm walk in Oranmore next week.
The event will take place on Wednesday April 27 at 11am on the farm of Henry and Enda Walsh in Oranmore (H91 KN5N ).
The walk has been developed to meet the growing interest in improving efficiencies across the dairy sector, against the backdrop of uncontrollable external factors such as soaring input costs, inflation, and difficulties finding the right employees.
Expert advisors from ifac, Aurivo, and Teagasc will be on hand to guide the walk and answer attendee questions. After an introduction, the walk will stop at four thematic information boards covering financial/economic, social/people, breeding and sustainability, and commodities.
Some of the areas to be covered on the day include an exploration of the rising input costs and their impact on profits, as well as tips for achieving cost efficiencies; attracting and retaining farm employees (including employer obligations and contracts of employment ); dairy genomics, the challenges and changes; and tips for improving farm sustainability.
“Henry and Enda Walsh’s farm is a successful, top 10 per cent category dairy farm, and a great example for others wishing to achieve a similarly sustainable, operationally effective, and cost-efficient business,” said Tom O’Farrell, partner at ifac’s Athenry office. “This farm walk is part of our brand promise to our clients, and the wider farming community, to provide the full depth and breadth of our financial expertise and sectoral experience to help them grow their businesses and ultimately sustain the future of Irish farming and rural Ireland.”
Vincent Griffith, Aurivo farm profitability programme manager, added: “Aurivo are delighted to be involved in the farm walk, which will showcase some of the tools available to dairy farmers that will allow them to maintain farm profitability during unprecedented times.”
After the walk, there will be light refreshments served, sponsored by ifac.
“As a dairy farmer in Ireland today, each of us is dealing with a lot of unknowns and ongoing challenges, from the availability and cost of inputs to climate change and its impacts,” said dairy farmer Henry Walsh, host farm for the walk. “Faced with this reality, our resilience and success will come out of how each one of us, and indeed our sector as a whole, manages this ongoing chaos and ambiguity. This is part of what we’ll be discussing on this very timely farm walk.”
