Chairman of Macra na Feirme’s Agricultural Affairs committee Kieran McEvoy speaking at Teagasc Moorepark yesterday March 2nd has said ‘farm safety has to be a key priority for all farmers, especially in the busy spring time period and Macra na Feirme will be conducting a serious of briefing meeting of Young Farmer groups with a strong farm safety theme’.

The first semi-final takes place on Sunday 14th March in the Community Centre, Summerhill, Co. Meath at 7pm. The counties participating are Cavan, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Longford, Meath, Roscommon, Sligo and Wicklow plus any other counties in the northern half of the country who submit entries by the extended deadline of 5th March.

Congratulations to the Monasterevin Macra team from Co. Kildare who last weekend won the national final of the Kerrygold Club Question Time. The event was held in the Castle Hotel, Mainstreet, Macroom, Co. Cork with 26 Macra teams from all over the country competing for the prestigious title and a place on the Macra prize-winners trip.

After an extremely entertaining evening of speechmaking, the team from Athboy Macra from Co. Meath were named this year's Public Speaking champions while last year’s winners Clodagh Macra club from county Tipperary came second. The team from Athboy was made up of Darren Smyth, Aisling Kearney and Anthony Smyth who also received the best speaker award on the night.

The Rural Youth Initiative Committee would like to assess the training requirements of Macra na Feirme members. Please take a few minutes to complete the following survey. This sub-committee consults members undertakes research and executes lobby and public awareness campaigns on a wide range of issues that affect young people.

Macra na Feirme takes the safety of all farmers very seriously and due to the frightening rise in farm deaths reported in 2010, (7 farm related fatalities in the first two months of 2010, this figure is half of the total farm fatalities for 2009). Macra would recommend all farmers complete the farm Risk Assessment available to them, this assessment is sponsored by FBD.

Macras Child Protection Awareness Training Wednesday 24th March 2010 in The Horse & Jockey Hotel, Thurles at 8pm and Wednesday 31st March in Longford Arms Hotel, Longford. All members are invited to attend.

Macra na Feirme, National President, Michael Gowing welcomed the decision to include the B. Agr. Sc. in Agri-Environmental Science to the list of training courses to qualify for Stamp Duty Relief in the Finance Bill. Stamp Duty relief applies where land is transferred to a young trained farmer under 35 by way of gift or sale.

CEJA’s position paper on agriculture and climate change for the upcoming discussions during the UN conference in Copenhagen. As the voice of over one million young farmers throughout the European Union, CEJA represents the next generation of European food producers, who will be directly responsible for tackling the combined challenges of food security and climate change. They therefore hope that their position paper will be taken into consideration and achieves the attention it deserves.