Judges commend photographers in dairy-themed competition

An exciting photo competition was run in the lead up to the 2021 Teagasc Moorepark Open Day, inviting entrants to upload a photo illustrating what they love about Irish dairying.

The Moorepark Open Day is a biannual event outlining research on all aspects of dairy farming including grassland management, animal genetics, animal health, environmental sustainability, farm infrastructure and the theme of this year’s event was ‘Irish Dairying – Delivering Sustainability’.

The purpose of the photo competition was to encourage farmers to share positive images of what they love about dairy farming to show the many reasons why dairy farming is an attractive career.

Over 250 entries were received with an overall winner, first runner up and second runner up prizes given out along with 7 finalist prizes.

Áine O’Keeffe from Newmarket, County Cork was the overall winner with her photo titled ‘Sunrise to sunset’, and in doing so scooped herself a €500 One4All voucher.

The first runner up was Lorraine Hogan, Horse & Jockey, County Tipperary with her photo titled 'Bedding new born calves with Grandad'.

The second runner up was Barry O’ Sullivan, Garristown County Meath with his photo titled “Grazing in the summer sun”.

All photographs were displayed during the open day in Moorepark and can be viewed at https://www.teagasc.ie/corporate-events/moorepark-open-day/#finalists. This competition was run by Teagasc and the NEFERTITI project.

Speaking about the photo competition, one of the organisers John Moriarty from Teagasc said: “We were delighted with the response we received to the competition. Current farmers are the most important people to highlight the many things that make Irish dairying great. Farmers and their families really got behind the competition by sharing positive pictures of what they do.”