Tag Archives: Clare Macra

A NATIVE of Cross, Andrew Naughton will represent Clare at the 15th Annual Mr. Personality Festival. The competition is being organised by Kilkenny County Macra na Feirme and takes place from April 8-10 at the Springhill Court Hotel. Andrew, 23, is an active member of Kilrush Macra na Feirme and has a keen interest in sports, including football and rugby, while he is also interested in farming and Star Wars.  Andrew teaches at Pallaskenry Agricultural College and he said he is really looking forward to this week’s activities, particularly as life has been so constrained over the last couple of years. On deciding to go forward in the first place, he said, “I know one or two of the other entrants, I know the Limerick one from work and we decided that we’d go to it.” He was in the Clare finals earlier this year, when he was selected to represent the Banner in the All Ireland. “It was grand, …

IT was music to the ears of Bunratty farmer Joe Melody to discover that he has been named Clare Macra Young Farmer of the Year. Having come on top at the county rounds, Joe will now go on to represent Clare in the 2020 Macra na Feirme FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition. Joe runs both a dairy and beef enterprise. The Clare native milks a herd of 139 Holstein-cross British Friesian cows, along with a pedigree herd of Charolais and Limousin cows. In 2015, Joe was milking 75 cows and since then have expanded and are now milking 139 cows; however, the hope is to go further again and milk around 160-170 cows in the near future. Explaining the expansion of the dairy enterprise over the last few years, Joe said, “We bought a lot of breeding stock, from a local farmer, such as in-calf cows and heifers, as well as breeding our own replacements. At the moment, …