Archive News 2007 January to March

10 March 2008
CAFRE, Greenmount Campus.

CAFRE has developed a new computer program to help farmers calculate Phosphorus Balance.  This program will be of particular interest to those farmers who have applied for the Nitrates Derogation as one of the requirements for a farm is not to exceed 10 kg P/ha.

19 February 2008
Kevin O’Donnell, CAFRE, Greenmount Campus ,

Are you interested in improving your farm welding skills? If so, you should give some thought to attending a Basic Farm Welding course at the College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), Enniskillen Campus.

The course will run over ten evenings, at two evenings per week for five weeks, starting in mid January 2008.

18 February 2008
Press Office,
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD)

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has provided a further update on bluetongue disease.

The update follows confirmation on Friday that tests detected bluetongue disease in a cow on a farm in North Antrim. This cow was part of a group of cattle imported from the continent of Europe. This cow was culled on a precautionary basis last Thursday. On Friday the calf of this cow was also culled due to the risks of virus transmission before birth.

Experts hunt for bird flu source

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Experts are still trying to determine the source of an outbreak of bird flu at a Suffolk farm as nearly 160,000 turkeys are culled.
The government says the priority is to contain and eradicate the disease, identified as the H5N1 strain, at the Bernard Matthews site near Lowestoft.
Strict controls are in place around the site, where turkeys are being gassed.

8 February 2008
Graeme Cross, Top Fruit Development Adviser,
Greenmount Campus, CAFRE

Balanced nutrition is at the heart of high quality horticultural production. This is certainly the case for Armagh’s Bramley’s Seedling apple growers, who aim for consistent cropping, fruit size and grade from year to year.

02 February 2008
CAFRE, Greenmount Campus

Two local women came top at the recent National Animal Health Conference, Coventry, scooping the top two AMTRA (Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority) prizes.

28 January 2008
CAFRE, Greenmount Campus

The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), are currently delivering Field Boundary Management workshops for farmers throughout the Province. Topics covered include how to safeguard your Single Farm Payment and agri-environment scheme payments with regard to field boundaries. In addition hedge management and restoration including hedge coppicing and laying are discussed and the workshop concludes with a demonstration of hedge planting.

23 January 2008
Brian Finch, CAFRE, Greenmount Campus

CAFRE is running a series of Nitrates Derogation Information Meetings across N.I. These meetings will cover the Nitrates Derogation rules and a case study of how the Derogation will operate on a farm.

23 January 2008
Jason McFerran, Greenmount Campus, CAFRE

CAFRE are running IT courses from January through April in venues across Northern Ireland including Armagh, Ballynahinch, Ballymoney, Fivemiletown, and Omagh, as well as at Greenmount and Loughry Campuses.