The Padraig Walshe Centre of Excellence
How appropriate that the proposed Centre for Sustainable Animal and Grassland Research to be developed at Moorepark is to be dedicated to the late Padraig Walshe.
Padraig dedicated his entire farming career to the advancement of knowledge on grass-based livestock and milk production. This is a fitting memorial to a man who, against much inertia from the establishment, pushed forward – through his farming practices – now well-accepted, extended grazing and grass-production techniques, highlighting the economic benefits of maximising grass production and utilisation.
The €6m donation for the establishment of the centre from the FBD family of companies should be matched by State funding, as was strongly hinted at by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, at the announcement of the initiative at Moorepark last month.