Farming
Galway stud leads the way in the breeding of Irish Draughts
A GALWAY stud farm dedicated to the improvement of Irish Draught bloodlines has ‘swept the boards’ at the Irish Horse Show in the RDS.
Cappa Stud in Annaghdown – owned by Ballinasloe natives, Jimmy and Edel Quinn – not alone landed the Supreme Champion Irish Draught accolade, but also scooped the Reserve award.
Eight-year-old Cappa Cassanova (bred by Seamus Leahy from Headford) took the Supreme Champion award for the third time in four years, having also taken the title in 2012 and 2013 while Cappa Aristocrat (bred by Pascal Claffey, Laurencetown) was Reserve Champion.
Jimmy and Edel Quinn came back from the United States in 2007 with the dream of saving some of the old bloodlines of the Irish Draughts and broadening the gene pool – now the RDS results have shown the success of the project.
“I suppose that since we set up here eight years back, Ireland went through a severe recession that impacted greatly on the horse industry but things have picked up and especially so this year.
“We had a lot of faith in the quality of Irish Draught that we could produce and we really have been blown away with our success at the RDS earlier this month,” said Edel Quinn.
Even better news for Cappa Stud is the fact that the winner of the prestigious Three Year Old Potential Event Horse Class – Noble Class – was sired by Cappa Cassanova.
“Noble Class’s win is really good news for us, in that it provides real evidence of the quality of offspring being produced by Cappa Cassanova. He’s had a very busy breeding season this year, covering 70 mares, and it’ll be even busier next year, following these results,” said Edel Quinn.
Cappa Stud, also have a farm in Gurtymadden near Loughrea catering for over 50 mares – they also have been pursuing the Chinese market for the Irish Draughts with the setting up of an equestrian centre in Shanghai.
Jimmy Quinn said that they had been ‘completely overwhelmed’ with the third success in four years of Cappa Cassanova, while Aristrocrat’s success, at just four, augurs well for the future.
The Quinns are equally as thrilled with the success of Noble Class – son of Cappa Casanova – who was the only horse bred by an Irish Draught out of 17 finalists in the three-year-old Potential Event Horse Class. Noble Class was sired by Cappa Cassanova out of The Marching Lass – the dam sire was Aristocracy.
“This success is truly great news for Irish breeding – to win that class does show that local Irish breeding is again coming to the top,” said Jimmy Quinn.
He bought their first Irish Draught nearly 10 years ago ‘over the phone’ – and while in the U.S. – after seeing an ad in the Irish Field.
“We are excited about the possibilities being opened up at the equestrian centre in Shanghai that has been given the go-ahead since last March.
“Ireland is known as the land of the horse and the Chinese are very anxious that the professional expertise of Irish breeders is to the fore with this project,” said Jimmy Quinn.
This is no business for the faint hearted as over 98% of Irish Draught stallions don’t make it through to the Class One category, having to undergo a rigorous testing regime to ensure that breed quality remains paramount.
These are exciting times for Cappa Stud, with the economy on the upturn and money being spent once more on horses, while China also looms big on the horizon. After recessions and economic downturns, the Quinns seem poised to capitalise on one of the absolute basics of the horse business – good breeding.
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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MINISTER for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, has been asked to review a decision taken over recent weeks to exclude the sheep farming sector from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR).
East Galway Independent TD, Seán Canney, has called on the Agriculture Minister and Government to ‘revisit’ the issue of sheep farmers and the BAR fund.
Galway IFA Chair, Stephen Canavan, also said that a mistake had been made in terms of excluding the sheep sector from the BAR funding.
“I think that there is no doubt whatsoever that Brexit had a major impact in terms of New Zealand lamb exports flooding the UK market.
“The knock-on affect of that on Irish sheep farmers was a serious fall-back on lamb and hogget prices through the early months of this year.
“There are now serious concerns that the farmers who buy in store lambs through the early autumn period will just pull out of this market after getting such a scalding over the past six months or so,” said Stephen Canavan.
According to Deputy Seán Canney, all of the Regional Group of TDs are backing the move to get the Government to have another look at the use of the BAR fund for the sheep sector.
“The evidence that sheep farming was affected by Brexit is strong and the decision not to support people in this sector needs to be reversed immediately.
“Brexit negotiations began in June 2016 and caused turmoil in the sheep trade as it weakened the currency making UK lamb far more competitive.
“The notion or threat of ‘a no deal ‘ in Brexit caused the price of sheep to fluctuate repeatedly in the trade and resulted in lambs selling for an estimated €30-€50 lower per head each year during the entire Brexit process,” said Deputy Canney.
WITH the exception of Leitrim, Galway was marginally the cheapest county in the west and north-west to buy non-residential farmland during the course of 2022, according to the latest national survey of prices.
The survey showed that the average price of an acre of ‘good land’ in Galway last year, for holdings under 50-acres, was €9,500 – the dearest was Donegal at €12,143 while the cheapest was Leitrim at €6,140 an acre.
Jointly researched by Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCCI) and Teagasc, the survey also indicated that only 0.5% of land in Ireland goes up for sale each year, a major factor in terms of demand for leased land.
‘Good land’ in Mayo [under 50-acres] averaged out at €10,092; the figure for Roscommon was €9,938; with Sligo coming in at €9,550.
When it came to a comparison of poorer quality land in Connacht [under 50-acres], Mayo was the cheapest at €2,886 followed by Leitrim on €3,300 while Galway topped ‘poor land price league’ at €5,375 per acre.
Auctioneer Martin O’Connor of DNG O’Connor, Oughterard, said that the market was being driven by dairy farmers ‘who are continually ranked throughout the survey as the most likely purchasers of land across the country’.
He said that changes in the European Nitrates Directive in relation to improving water quality meant that many dairy farmers needed more land to comply with this directive.
“In order to maintain current levels of milk production – and to comply with the directive – many dairy farms will need to either increase their land area or reduce milk production.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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