{"id":1251396,"date":"2024-03-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/?p=1251396"},"modified":"2024-03-16T09:11:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T09:11:33","slug":"ufu-celebrates-northern-irelands-top-silage-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/ufu-celebrates-northern-irelands-top-silage-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"UFU celebrates Northern Ireland&#8217;s top silage makers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This week, the Ulster Farmers\u2019 Union (UFU) celebrated Northern Ireland\u2019s top silage makers of last year (2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UFU and sponsor, United Feeds, hosted its annual silage makers&#8217; competition awards ceremony at the Dunsilly Hotel, Co. Antrim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robert Macauley, Robert and Ross Bradley, Sean and Ciaran McNaughton and Clifton and Jonathan Dickson took first place in their sectors in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UFU deputy president, John McLenaghan said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe UFU\u2019s annual silage competition has always encouraged farmers to produce silage to exceptional levels and once again, this year\u2019s competition entries were to the highest standard. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Good<a href=\"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/focus-on-silage-quality-for-better-milk-margins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> silage<\/a> making has always been a key element of farming in Northern Ireland, where we rely heavily on our ability to grow forage for our livestock sector. With increases to input costs, it\u2019s more important now than ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Full list of winners:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dairy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>1st: Robert Macauley, Mid Down group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2nd: D and A Wallace, South Antrim group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3rd: Beattie and Reggie Lilburn, Lagan group.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Beef and sheep<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>1st: Robert and Ross Bradley, North East Derry group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2nd: Billy and John Martin, Ards group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3rd: Linton Brothers, Mid Antrim group.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alternative forage<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>1st: Clifton and Jonathan Dickson, North East Armagh group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2nd: Jonny Hutchinson, South Londonderry group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3rd: Andrew and Thomas Jamison, North Antrim group.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bales<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>1st: Sean and Ciaran McNaughton, North Antrim group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2nd: G R Gilmore and Son, Ards group;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3rd: David Hylands, North West Derry group.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1st-place-winners.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"896\" src=\"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1st-place-winners-1024x896.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1251435\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.1428571428571428;width:742px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.agriland.ie\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1st-place-winners-1024x896.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.agriland.ie\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1st-place-winners-343x300.jpg 343w, https:\/\/cdn.agriland.ie\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1st-place-winners-768x672.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.agriland.ie\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1st-place-winners-1536x1344.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.agriland.ie\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1st-place-winners-2048x1792.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Back row (l-r): John McLenaghan UFU; Johnathan Dickson (alternative forage); Clarence Calderwood, United Feeds. Front row (l-r): Robert Bradley (beef\/sheep); Clifton Dickson (alternative forage); and Ciaran McNaughton (round bale)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Clarence Calderwood from United Feeds added that high quality forage is a &#8220;key element&#8221; for all ruminant farms and that its importance has never been as high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He then congratulated the winners of the competition and said that he was &#8220;delighted&#8221; with the number of entries for the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"agri-also-read-block_a48099f192bc7c98477189ff60317384\" class=\"agri-also-read\"><a class=\"also-read-inline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/applications-for-tams-women-farmer-scheme-up-70\/\" target=\"\"><strong>Also Read: <\/strong><span>Applications for TAMS women farmer scheme up 70%<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the Ulster Farmers\u2019 Union (UFU) celebrated Northern Ireland\u2019s top silage makers of last year (2023). UFU and sponsor,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3521,"featured_media":1013701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4241,843,611,18326,573],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1251396"}],"version-history":[{"count":74,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1252025,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251396\/revisions\/1252025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}