South Dakota farming on agenda
Editorial Department • Published 26 Jan 2012 13:00
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A Fermanagh farmer who emigrated to the United States to set up a 2,000-cow dairy herd, is one of the speakers at next week's Ulster Grassland Society conference.
Rodney Elliott, who left Drumgoon, Maguiresbridge, is now farming in South Dakota. He is one of four speakers at the 53rd annual conference taking place at the RUAS in Belfast on Tuesday, January 31 where the conference theme is "Producing for a changing market".
"Our line up of speakers includes two farmers who left Northern Ireland to set up farm in South Dakota and in the borders of Scotland. Both relate how they are facing up to the specific challenges that confront their businesses," confirmed UGS President, Norbury Royle.
Five years ago, Rodney Elliott was running Drumgoon, a successful, 180-acre, dairy farm near Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh which had been in his family for three generations. Today, he and his wife Dorothy manage 30 staff, more than 3,000 animals, 2,000 of which are dairy cows, at his farm in South Dakota. Significantly, they buy about $4.5 million worth of corn, corn silage, hay and other feeds from their neighbours and agri-processing plants in northeast South Dakota.
Rodney holds firmly to the view that there is much less legislation and paperwork in Dakota and there is also no Government support for agriculture. Farming the American way, on such a huge scale, has required Rodney to become a businessman first and foremost. He now admits it is all about managing people.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 26 Jan 12
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