Chewing the cud with… James Hickey
Chewing the cud with… James Hickey
Each month, we put the spotlight on a Tirlán employee and for our January newsletter, we’re talking to James Hickey
Tirlán’s agronomy team play a vital role in providing technical advice to tillage farmers, looking after a host of Tirlán tillage customer accounts and the management of a growing number of premium crops like malting barley, gluten-free oats, food grade oats and premium seeds, which add value to family farm incomes and to Tirlán’s bottom line.
James Hickey is an agronomist in Kilkenny, alongside his technical lead role for the tillage team. While it might be a quieter time on tillage farms, for the agronomy team this time of year is spent getting critical fertiliser and agricultural chemical plans together and planning for a busy year ahead.
“I’m A UCD Agricultural Graduate where I specialised in animal and crop production and started with Tirlán in 2011. It’s a fantastic place to work and it’s great to be out and about in the open. 2022 was a particularly good year – one of the best on record I’d say. Grain price was good, crop yields were good too. It made for a very happy working environment.
“The toughest part of the job can be dealing with the weather. You have to cover every inch of ground in your area from March to June. You have to see every field. It can make for very long evenings.”
The varied role sees James working hand in hand with tillage farmers, providing them with technical advice on fertilisers, seed and crop protection plans (chemicals) and looking after commercial transactions on fertiliser, seed, agri chemicals and trading grain.
When the day is over James, who lives in Galmoy, tends to the family farm. “I’ve a suckler herd and a small bit of tillage. I love working the land and it’s a great way to unwind and while my playing days are over, I also enjoy underage training with the kids with the local club.”
The change in structure to a 100% farmer-owned Co-op has been very positively received in the farming community, as has the name and identity change, James says. “Tirlán has done what it promised to do as a farmer-owned cooperative. It has delivered leading prices for grain and for milk. We are on the frontline dealing with farmers every day. There hasn’t been any negativity whatsoever. Long may it continue.”
A trip to NZ
Gordon Grey, Thomas Ryan, Grace O’Dwyer, Brian Hanafin at the New Zealand national agriculture outdoor event ‘Field Days’ in Hamilton
A trip to NZ
A recent trip to New Zealand provides Tirlán with an insight into how other global co-operatives operate
Four Tirlán staff members including Brian Hanafin, Head of Milkpool and Technical Development and Grace O’Dwyer, Retail Marketing Manager, recently embarked on an information gathering exercise to New Zealand. The team concentrated their learnings on areas including milk quality, on-farm sustainability, the evolving regulatory environment and how farmers are serviced from a commercial standpoint.
Thomas Ryan and Grace O’Dwyer with Fonterra/Farm Source Store Manager in Hamilton
Speaking with Overherd, Brian said: “Tirlán is on an ambitious journey to become one of the leading co-operatives in Europe, so it’s important we get a first-hand understanding of how other global co-operatives operate and what we can learn from them. Equally, it’s important for us at Tirlán to understand when we’re going above and beyond to deliver across the wide spectrum of activities we undertake on a daily basis. We took this trip to gain an insight into where farmers in New Zealand are in terms of sustainability, milk quality, procurement and equally to understand the country’s evolving regulatory environment. Similar to our own dairy industry, there are a mix of challenges and opportunities that New Zealand is grappling with. There’s a universal acceptance that some on-farm practices in New Zealand are no longer acceptable to regulatory bodies, customers and international consumers. The learnings and information that we’ve taken from the trip will prove invaluable going forward.”
Brian Hanafin and Gordon Grey discussing milk quality standards with Fonterra representatives
While there, the group met 12 farmers who shared the challenges facing the agriculture sector in New Zealand. “It was great to hear about the approaches they’re adopting to help them overcome these challenges. Sustainability and innovation are very evident in the solutions they employ to help them farm more efficiently. I also spent a number of days with Fonterra Co-operative Group’s commercial arm, which was really interesting,” said Grace. Tirlán has invested in building relationships with key personnel in the milk supply function within Fonterra over the last number of years, sharing similar experiences and solutions in a pre-competitive space. “It’s on this basis that we selected the study trip to New Zealand, as it offered the best opportunity to understand a similar milk production model where we could benchmark performance across similar performance indicators,” added Grace.
In Figures – The New Zealand Dairy Industry
There are a lot of comparisons between Ireland and New Zealand’s dairy industry, mainly in relation to seasonal pasture-based systems, the low cost of production relative to barn-fed cows, large neighbouring markets and an inventory of natural resources that need to be protected for future generations. New Zealand is about three times the area of Ireland, with a national milk volumes of close to 22 billion litres of milk.
- 4.921 million dairy cows
- 11,179 herds
- 2.84 cows per hectare
- Average herd size is 440 cows (770 Canterbury)
- Average yield 4296 litres/average milk solids 385kgs
- 95% product exported worth 18.6 NZD, representing 23% total exports and 5.3% nominal GD
Customer service goes digital
Customer service goes digital
Tirlán’s digitalisation journey continues with the launch of its new Consumer shopping platform
Tirlán recently undertook a project to digitalise its Consumer shopping platform. Headed up by Cathal Murphy, Head of Customer Service and Gillian Cassidy, Customer Service Manager – Consumer Category, the new platform allows Tirlán business customers to place their orders online, view previous orders and reorder items, all with the click of a button.
“Previously, customers would have either called in orders or emailed them to us. A year and a half ago, we decided to investigate whether there was an opportunity to digitise the experience. Since then, we’ve been working with our IT teams to develop and build out a new web portal,” said Cathal. Since the platform’s launch in October 2022, about 40% of Tirlán’s customer base are actively using it. “We’re taking a phased approach to increasing that figure. By the end of February, our aim is that all our eligible customers will be using it.”
The new platform is, says Gillian, extremely easy to use. “One of our key ambitions with the platform was to ensure the experience would be the same, if not better, for customers. We wanted to create a platform that would be intuitive, simple and straightforward to use and going on feedback we’ve received so far, we have achieved that. Over time, we intend to build in new functionality to further enhance the experience for customers.” The consumer business side of Tirlán is a complex entity, tasked with taking orders from different depots around the country and dealing with different delivery dates and cut-off times. “There’s a lot of nuance that had to be factored into the design and build of the platform, which we achieved,” said Cathal.
Tirlán’s new platform is making life easier for customers. “We have created a better customer experience which will help drive operational efficiencies for the business. Ultimately, it’ll allow us to move our customer service contributions up the value chain and deliver more value-added support for the business,” said Cathal.
Get 2023 off to the best start!
Get 2023 off to the best start!
Avonmore Slimline Milk’s new campaign ‘Focus on Being Me in 2023’ aims to help you focus on improving your health and wellbeing
It’s a new year. Time for a fresh start and a new focus.
Avonmore Slimline Milk wants to help you get the new year off to the best start with its campaign ‘Focus on Being Me in 2023’. The campaign is all about motivating and inspiring you to prioritise your health and wellbeing, so you can be the best version of yourself for the year ahead. It’s about setting realistic goals and doing what feels right for you.
To launch the campaign, you’ll find three limited edition cartons of Avonmore Slimline Milk in stores, with a message to focus on POSITIVITY, HAPPINESS and CONFIDENCE for 2023. The cartons feature a QR code bringing consumers to a website for more info about the campaign and the benefits of Avonmore Slimline Milk.
The campaign will run for six weeks and is supported with outdoor and instore advertising, podcast advertising, social media, influencer activity and sampling.
Follow Avonmore’s Instagram page or visit www.avonmore.ie/2023 to find out more.
Now, what small changes will you make to prioritise your health and wellness in 2023?
Webinar replay: Authentic Leadership
Webinar replay: Authentic Leadership
Professor Roger Delves says authenticity is key to developing a deep sense of purpose
Before the Christmas holidays, Professor Roger Delves hosted an exclusive Tirlán webinar which explored the theory behind developing a more authentic leadership style and the connection between integrity, values and authenticity.
In the webinar, Roger discusses how authentic leaders have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their core values. Having recently launched our new Purpose, Vision and Values (PVV), this is particularly important for our organisation as the core behaviour of authenticity can and should inform the actions of everyone in the organisation.
Make sure to watch the video below if you’d like to develop a very clear idea of why authenticity is such a desirable behaviour in organisations and also get a real sense of what changes you can make as an individual to increase your personal authenticity in our new organisation.
Roger Delves is a Professor, Hult International Business School, author & speaker with an interest in authentic and transformational leadership Roger Delves | LinkedIn
Christmas Jumper Day raises €10,000
Christmas Jumper Day raises €10,000
Tirlán staff dug deep this Christmas for Focus Ireland
Thanks to a big festive effort from colleagues across Tirlán, €10,000 was raised for homeless charity Focus Ireland this Christmas.
€4,835 was raised through generous donations from colleagues, which has been rounded up and matched by Tirlán to help people who find themselves homeless in Ireland.
Big thanks goes to everyone who got in the Christmas spirit and donned their favourite jumpers across all of Tirlán and congratulations to our four competition winners who each picked up a €100 One4All voucher.
