Falklands : Falklands Farmers' Week Begins with Rural EXPO
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 09.07.2008 (Article Archived on 23.07.2008)
Farmers’ week began in earnest on Monday morning with an exhibition organised by the Rural Business Association and SeaLed PR (a local PR company not allied with California based Sealed PR) that included businesses focusing on the Rural Community. Businesses like Cable & Wireless and organisations like the Falkland Islands Chamber of Commerce were exhibiting.
FARMERS’ WEEK BEGINS WITH RURAL EXPO
By J. Brock (FINN)
Farmers’ week began in earnest on Monday morning with an exhibition organised by the Rural Business Association and SeaLed PR (a local PR company not allied with California based Sealed PR) that included businesses focusing on the Rural Community. Businesses like Cable & Wireless and organisations like the Falkland Islands Chamber of Commerce were exhibiting.
The Exhibition was followed by lunch provided by the Department of Agriculture and a talk about Organic Farming systems by Mac MacArthur and Ian Campbell who explained the benefits of the visit of Dr Andrew Monk from the Association of Biological Farmers in Australia (BFA) and associating with that organisation to certify Falkland Islands’ produce as organic. Though a lot of hard work needed to be done to create Falklands Standards, this had many advantages and it was up to the farmers to decide which way to go to gain Organic Status. Dr Monk had visited Falklands’ farms in April this year and had discovered some of the farms on the old system Falkland Islands’ Organic Scheme have the necessary practices and systems in place and could go “organic” in 18 months or so.
After Smoko, Andrew Pollard conducted a discussion about the findings from the Department of Agriculture’s Grazing Management and Strategic Sheep Nutrition Trials. His presentation focused on the Ewe flock and what they ate and when. He briefly explained the need for good nutrition in Ewes for the production of healthy lambs and for their own well-being and continued with the forage resources Ewes had available and when they were being consumed. Also explained were management techniques such as letting paddocks recover after grazing and the introduction of legumes for beneficial nutrition. During the course of the trials statistics were recorded during every season as to what foraging crops were being consumed and when supplementary proteins were added to the fodder. These trials are on- going and have produced good results where grazing is managed and protein supplementation is administered during the winter months when indigenous and introduced fodder stops growing.
On Tuesday farmers will have fire training at FIGAS, a presentation by Workboat Services at FIPASS and lunch provided by Workboat Services before the FIMCO Annual Review and a lecture on Disease Surveillance. The day will be topped off with the Variety Show in the Town Hall.
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