Category: 2016 Archive

With over 30 years’ experience, Agrigear Ltd., the tyre and wheel specialist company is one of the largest wholesale suppliers covering the whole of Ireland.

Agrigear is the appointed Irish distributor of BKT tyres which has an extensive range of agricultural, industrial, earthmover, ATV, lawn & garden and vintage tyres, all available in a wide range of sizes. BKT’s Agrimax range has fast become a brand of preference among tractor users in Ireland.

Customised wheel manufacturing, modification and reconditioning services are all available at Agrigear. Tailor-made wheels such as rowcrop wheels or dual wheel systems can be designed and manufactured or modified to customers’ unique requirements.

For more information about what tyres or wheels are best suited to your requirements, please speak with one of our sales advisers at the stand at the National Ploughing Championships (stand ref BLOCK 4, ROW 16, STAND 369). Also check out our website www.agrigear.ie where additional information about tyre sizes, tyre properties and technical specifications can be found.

In what is sure to be a huge attraction at the Ploughing, Lely will once again host a live robotic milking exhibition from 20th – 22nd of September. A herd of 40 cows will make the short journey from Tim Mannion’s farm in Killyon, Birr, Co. Offaly to a purpose built dairy unit on site, where they will be milked at their leisure during the show as they are on the home farm.

Speaking about the event, Tim Mannion said “We started milking with 2 Lely Astronaut A4 milking robots in May 2014 and now over 2 years on; it’s been a huge success. We are very proud to be associated with the Lely live robotic milking demonstration in 2016. It’s great that people will have the opportunity of seeing our cows in action and they will experience at first-hand how efficient the system is and how well the cows are cared for. They are in a completely stress free environment and have the freedom of choice to be milked at any time of the day or night. Their overall health, condition and temperament is noticeably better. The Lely system and its excellent management tools have really freed up invaluable time on our farm to look after the welfare of our cows and for grassland management. Our milk output has doubled and we are now producing milk on a consistent basis 12 months of the year.”
Niall Mc Gauran from Lely Center Mullingar who provides 24/7 back up in the local area, as well as advice in areas from barn design, layout, grazing and installation along with startup. Niall noted that the system fits neatly in to most existing sheds with minimal building work required.
Lely’s Tomás Cooney commented “The live milking demo will will provide farmers with the perfect opportunity of experiencing the efficiencies and labour savings that automation can bring. The cows will be fed zero grazed grass this year as they are on the home farm. We will also have a Lely Juno Feed pusher in action which will push the grass in regularly in front of the cows. There will be loads for the viewing public to see including live interviews with some of our customers on the stand each day at 11, 2, and 4pm. Who better is there to share their knowledge than those farmers who are using the system on a daily basis. Different topics from grazing and cow health, to labour saving will be discussed.” he ends.

Lely introduced their first robotic milking machine in 1992 and today has over 24,000 working worldwide milking over a 1.2 million cows daily. With the long and demanding hours that milking takes the Lely Astronaut A4 robotic milking system frees up invaluable time for dairy farmers and their families allowing them to concentrate on other farm duties. The system is so flexible that many customers can simply check their smart phone when at the show and know exactly what is happening at home.

Collaboration between stakeholders has shown improved outcomes in the control of potato late blight. BlightLink integrates a traditional potato blight warning system with a social network of growers, as a first step in a design process informed by real user experience.

Details –
Our aim is ‘Control through Collaboration’. In recent years the development of blight warning decision support systems can be mapped from a basic line of text to sophisticated models and software elsewhere in Europe. Originally my aim was to offer a similar system to that seen in the UK, but now I believe there is a better solution. The world has changed significantly in the last few years, with complexity giving way to simplicity and rather than the few experts at the top making decisions there is a move to the wisdom of crowds, as seen through wikipedia and other social media platforms.
It was on hearing of a potato farmer that collaborated with neighbouring backyard growers, by making sure they grew the same variety as him and spraying at the same time – it struck me that rather than striving for a sophisticated model, which required much time and inputs from the user, perhaps the solution could be much simpler. If a platform could be established to allow information flow between farmers and other stakeholders then there may be an alternative solution to the control of potato late blight. The App would retain the blight risk warning, which would be in the form of a visual calendar, but also offer the grower an opportunity to log an outbreak, view an outbreak map and collaborate with other stakeholders through a forum and potato focused wiki.
Recent theoretical research has shown that increasing stakeholder collaboration resulted in improved outcomes with a lowering of the severity of blight outbreaks. Nowadays we all carry sensors on us in the form of mobile phones and information on outbreaks can be disseminated in real time through images and Apps. Drones too are set to make a huge impact on the management of agricultural pests and diseases, allowing farmers to monitor their crops and react quickly to outbreaks.
Bill Gates sums it up perfectly, “When information can flow easily, when data is democratized, the cost of doing business in agriculture goes way down, just as transaction costs go way down when financial transactions are digital. The excessive time and money farmers, agribusinesses, and cooperatives spend managing the risk of doing business with unknown partners is a drag on efficiency. When these partners know each other easily – can function as nodes in a single market place, agriculture will thrive.”

September, 2016: Stop the silent killer in its tracks, is the message from the Irish Heart Foundation as they encourage everyone attending this year’s Ploughing Championships to avail of the free blood pressure checks being offered by their new Mobile Health Unit.

According to the Irish Heart Foundation, early detection is the single most powerful tool in the fight against high blood pressure which is a silent, stealthy and symptomless killer and is a leading cause of stroke, heart disease, premature death and disability in Ireland today, with almost one million people suffering from it.

Their new Mobile Health Unit, staffed by fully qualified nurses, will be present and operating for the three days of this year’s Ploughing Championships and Marese Damery, Health Check Co-ordinator with the Irish Heart Foundation, is urging people to make the most of the service.

Marese said: “Silent and invisible, high blood pressure can seriously damage blood vessels and the heart if left unchecked. People with high blood pressure are three times more likely to have a stroke or heart attack compared to those with healthy or controlled blood pressure.

“The good news is that a simple blood pressure check can be the first step in detecting high blood pressure.”

The only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to get checked and the Irish Heart Foundation is advising all those at this year’s Ploughing Championships to follow the example set by the Minster for Health Simon Harris TD and take the 10 minutes it takes and visit the Mobile Health Unit.