Farm Diversification Day highlights Opportunities

Cavan-Monaghan LEADER held a Farm Diversification Day in the Agricultural College in Ballyhaise recently. On the day over 55 farmers and members of farm families attended and found the day useful for exploring the possibility of diversifying into a non-agricultural enterprise.

The day was chaired by Peter Young of the Farmers Journal and RTE’s Higher Ground programme. Peter delivered a presentation on the subject of Farm Diversifcation and provided a number key points for anyone to consider including; where do farm diversification ideas come from?, is it currently a good time to start a farm diversification business?, the importance of knowing and regularly updating your business and marketing plan, the value of recognising your own strengths and weaknesses and the real need to balance realism and optimism.

Presentations delivered by successful farm projects on the day included;
1. Sile Bouchier and Sean Thornton spoke about their farm diversification business based at Carratraw Canoe Centre.
2. Derek McCabe spoke about his new business ‘Fire Wood for Sale’ which has been recently established in the Cavan region using first thinning’s from hard wood forestry.
3. Raymond Brady based in Co Cavan gave a presentation on his new off-farm business ‘Rays Concrete Grooving’.
4. Deirdre Murtagh from ‘Causey Farm’ near Kells in Co. Meath spoke about how their family farm enterprise which has grown from meagre visitor numbers in 1998 to now attracting over 45,000 annually.
5. Marianne McEneaney, Development Officer with Cavan-Monaghan LEADER gave a presentation on the supports both developmental and financial that are available for Farm Diversification Projects under the RDP LEADER programme.

The day finished with a question and answer session, where the presenters gave frank and informative answers to questions posed by those in attendance. All presenters insisted that it was vitally important to do something that you were interested in, not to underestimate the importance of the internet in all plans, be patient and be prepared for hard work.

If interested in developing a farm based enterprise, see more about our RDP Application Process or Contact Us directly. Attached is a photograph of most of the main speakers & organisers involved with the Farm Diversification Day.