Category: Exhibitor News 2018

We will  have a specifically slingshot game with us called: ‘The Further A Field’.

Many of our key target markets purchase lrish Produce, we would like to ask Irish Consumers to catapult our vegetables towards a target. The target will be a Country, we would like our Irish Consumers to target the country they would like to see Irish produce available in. We will tally up the vote and announce after the National Ploughing Championship. Our objective is to have local Irish Vegetables available on the shelves for generation migration.

We will also be launching our new exciting products, Beer Battered Chips and  Beer Battered Onion rings in addition to the new Vegan/Dairy Free range of products: Mashed Potato, Root Veg, Sprouting Broccoli and Potato Crush

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A variety of interactive science shows and workshops will be on offer for event goers of all age groups including science magic shows, workshops etc.

In addition to this we will be promoting the range of education and public engagement programmes that Science Foundation Ireland offer including:

What have we in the marquee?

– Smart Futures (www.smartfutures.ie) promoting STEM careers to students in Ireland. It provides access to careers information and role models to students, parents, guidance councillors and teachers.

– Science Week is Ireland’s biggest annual promotion of science to the general public. The week-long programme of events across Ireland each November aims to make science more interesting and accessible to children and adults alike. (www.scienceweek.ie)

– 16 world-leading SFI Research Centres Science Foundation Ireland funds 16 world-leading, large-scale SFI Research Centres – that represent major economic impact for Ireland, with €428m Exchequer funding and €228m industry investment. They are focused on research in areas such as advanced materials, bio-engineering, pharmabiotics, medical devices, photonics, software, data analytics, Internet of Things, marine renewable energy, geosciences, and solid-state pharmaceuticals, aswell as foetal and neonatal translational research.

– Discover call Funded Projects – Meet some of SFI Funded projects – Dublin Maker, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cell explorers , Physics Buskers etc

At Science Foundation Ireland, we believe in the ability of science, technology, engineering &maths to effect positive change in the world and drive a sustainable international economy

Theatre Shows – every hour ( on the half hour) daily from 09.30- 4pm

– Bubble Show Join Scientific Sue on a very slimy scientific journey of discovery and find out about the amazing science and engineering which is linked to the magical world of
bubbles. Using lots of volunteers the secret ingredients which allow us to turn soap solutions into amazing colour changing bath bombs, bouncing bubbles and unbelievably huge bubbles will be revealed. Who knew bubbles would allow us to learn about electric forces, solids, liquids and gases, acid – base reactions and gooey, slimy polymers.
Bubbles: Big, small, bouncing, touchable, floating, sinking. Bubbles hold many wonders and create lots of excitement!

– Your beautiful biased brain
Psychologist James Soper presents this fast-paced, interactive show that will literally turn your world upside down. We take our brains for granted but they are the most amazing machines in the universe. Brains do incredible things, but they also take short-cuts that mean sometimes what you see, hear and feel is very different to the actual world around you. Learn about the latest in brain imaging and research in a show that will blow your mind.
Interactive Activities in the Marquee
– Physics Buskers- “busking performances” involve interactive experiments and demonstrations selected for maximum engagement, excitement and education.
Hands on Workshops for kids with take home kits to try at home: daily at 9.45am, 10.30am, 11.15am, 12pm, 12.45pm, 1.30pm, 2.15pm, 3pm

• Tuesday – Food Is Funky
• Wednesday – Cell Explorers – Discover your DNA
• Thursday – Chemistry Maker workshop Making spectrometers

The Aldi marquee is back for another year at the National Ploughing Championships

#AldiPloughing 

The Aldi marquee is back at the National Ploughing Championships with a jam-packed line up throughout the three-day festival which takes place in Screggan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly.

Entertainment will once again be provided by hugely popular Irish country music star Mike Denver, celebrity cooking demonstrations and 35 of Aldi’s Irish suppliers will be showcasing the very best of Aldi’s multi-award winning range of Irish sourced food and drink. 

Visitors are especially encouraged to get to the marquee during Mike’s daily set on stage, to be in with a chance of once again getting their hands on a complimentary Stetson hat.

Day 1 (18^th Sept): Virgin Media 1’s Ireland AM hosted by Alan Hughes will come live from the Aldi marquee from early in the morning.  The five winners of the ‘Grow with Aldi’ supplier development programme will be announced, Mike Denver and his band will take to the stage throughout the day, and chef Mick Quinn will be cooking up a storm in the demo kitchen from the stage. He will be joined by Irish goalkeeping legend Packie Bonner and singer Jake Carter in a celebrity cook off at midday. The first semi final of both the National Brown Bread Baking Competition and the National Junior Baking Competition will take place in the Baking Area.

Day 2 (19^th Sept): Virgin Media 1’s The Elaine Show will come live from the Aldi marquee and Munster and Irish rugby hero Paul O Connell who is the Aldi Play Rugby Ambassador will also be in attendance. Again cookery demos, the second semi final of both the National Brown Bread Baking Competition and the National Junior Baking Competition will take place and Mike Denver will be on stage throughout the day. Chef Mick Quinn will oversee a cook off between Paul O’Connell and Aldi Community Games supporter and Dublin GAA player James McCarthy. Foróige, one of Aldi’s charity partners will be also be on site, and young Foróige members will be encouraged to use their skills and talents as they take part in an Aldi mentoring programme. The Aldi mentoring programme has been designed to give Foróige members an insight into the business of Aldi, and they will spend the day shadowing various members of the Aldi team and engaging in key roles.

Day 3 (20^th Sept): The final day is all about crowning our two baking champions – the winning brown bread that will hit the shelves of all 133 Aldi stores in early December, as will the Lemon Drizzle cake, the competition of which is in association with Foróige. The 6 O’Clock Show will be filming the finals showcasing the very best brown breads and lemon drizzle cakes!

Aldi will once again sponsor The National Brown Bread Baking Competition, in association with the National Ploughing Association (NPA) and the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA). Day 1 will also see the Foróige Junior Baking Competition also sponsored by Aldi kick off in the marquee. Both competitions will run for the three days with the overall winners announced on Thursday.

What else will be going on?

• Broadcast beauty and Aldi’s Mamia Brand Ambassador Síle Seoige will also be on hand to MC the Aldi Marquee throughout the three days, as well as hosting the National Brown Bread and National Junior Baking competitions.
• Aldi will be joined by 35 of its Irish suppliers in its marquee, who will be taking part in live on stage cooking demonstrations and providing samples of Aldi’s premium Irish product range.
• The Mamia Baby Area is back, bigger and better, having proven so popular last year.  Aldi’s Beauty Ambassador, Sinead Kavanagh aka The Beautiful Truth will be on site on Day 1 to give her top tips for glowing skin!
• Face-painting and balloon making will also be taking place for the three days so make sure to bring the kids along too!
• Aldi’s Swap & Save campaign – take part in our survey at the marquee to be in with a chance to win Aldi shopping vouchers.

“We’re delighted to be back as one of the main sponsors of this year’s National Ploughing Championships and are looking forward to welcoming visitors to our marquee,” said John Curtin, Group Buying Director at Aldi Ireland. “Once again, the Aldi Marquee will be the destination of choice, with a huge array of entertainment planned, from cookery demos, to live music, to baking finals and face painting”.

“We will be joined by the winners of our GROW with Aldi initiative, as well as 35 of our Irish  suppliers who produce the premium quality Irish products found on the shelves of our 133 stores nationwide. Supporting the Irish food and drink sector is of huge importance to Aldi and we are delighted to present some of our best Irish fare to visitors.”

“Visitors will also get the chance to learn about the progress of the many national and local community projects Aldi has supported in Ireland, including the Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards, Aldi Play Rugby, Aldi Community Games and our partnership with FoodCloud.”

“As we are at the home of Ploughing in Ireland, we at Aldi would like to congratulate Eamonn Tracey from Carlow who won first place in the conventional class at the World Ploughing Contest in Germany recently. We would also like to congratulate Liam O’Driscoll from Cork, who came first in his category at the European Ploughing Contest in Russia back in June.”

NPA Managing Director Anna May McHugh said, “We are delighted to be partnered with Aldi and the ICA once again this year, given the popularity and success of the National Brown Bread Baking Competition at Ploughing.  With record crowds of 291,500 visitors in attendance last year and the site in Screggan proving to be a phenomenal success, signals would suggest another “great ploughing” is on the way.  The Championships not only provides a national stage for showcasing all things agricultural, but also brings together people from all sectors of Irish society both rural and urban, to enjoy three days immersed in country living.”

Packed with fun, food, sports and Stetsons, the Aldi marquee is set to be one of the highlights at the National Ploughing Championships so make sure to stop by!

The Aldi marquee is located at Block 4, Row 10, stand 233.

Over 30 years ago a TV appearance first highlighted, somewhat humorously, how a farmer could feed six calves at a time using two JFC Multi-Buckets. But now, almost in agri-science fiction style, the firm have launched a revolutionary automated Calf Feeder which can feed over 140 calves without using a bucket.
At a time when it is difficult and expensive for farmers to get workers, this automated Feeder can be programmed by one person to feed 140 calves. A micro-chip on the calf’s ear ensures that each calf gets the correct amount of milk every time and if they don’t the Feeder informs the operator.
It has taken almost three years of painstaking research and development plus countless trials on many farms for the R&D team at JFC in Tuam to perfect their labour-saving device which they now launch on the Irish market.

The research and year-long farm trials involved many sleepless nights and long days monitoring the feeding habits of calves according to John Concannon and his son, Damian a member of the R&D team at the firm’s Tuam headquarters. He says that the R&D team have been extremely dedicated and spared no energy or efforts in perfecting this product through the most rigorous of trials.

So confident is the JFC Group of having come up with a world class product that they have created a separate factory for the Evolution’s manufacture at their Tuam headquarters.
An extension to the existing factory involved expansion into what was the adjoining former HomeLee Bedding plant. It has been completely refurbished and fitted with new specialist manufacturing and assembly lines. Each Evolution goes through a rigorous quality assurance test on a computerised calffeeding simulator before leaving the factory.
“It’s a good news story for Tuam and a major technological leap for an Irish firm to be manufacturing an automated Calf Feeder as sophisticated, yet as easy for one person to operate as this one. We are ready to launch this product internationally” says John Concannon, Chairman and Managing Director of the JFC Group.
The Evolution Calf Feeder provides 24/7 feeding for the farmer. “The Control Unit has a computer interface which reads the calf’s tag and mixes the milk powder at the correct temperature. It is connected to 4 Feed Stations where the calves drink the amount allocated to each of them and then move away to allow the others to do likewise” explains Damian Concannon.
His father John says that “the ear tags are made locally by Cormac Tagging in Tuam and if a calf doesn’t drink his allocated amount of milk the Feeder alerts the farmer to check if the animal may be suffering from a health issue”.

“It also leads to quieter more contented calves as they get accustomed to queuing up for their milk and there is no rush towards buckets or spilling milk as only one calf at a time can fit into each Feed Station. When the calf has got it’s fill it just backs out and the next calf moves in” says John.

Damian says “if the farmer notices that one of his/her calves is not thriving as well as the others he/she can programme the Feeder to target an increase in the amount of milk for that animal. It is as simple as putting that calf on a different Feed Curve which will allow the animal to get more milk so that it can catch up with the rest of the calves. The Evolution can feed four calves at the same time in the different Feed Stations and with varying amounts of milk for each one if required”.

“Dual-hoppers allow for two different types of calf milk replacer to be used eg. a farmer can use a highprotein milk to get young heifers weaned and breeding as quickly as possible with a more cost-efficient milk specific for male calves destined for the beef herd” added Damian. This feature in conjunction with the 7 Feed Curve options makes the Evolution Calf Feeder one of the most versatile on the market. “Versatility is important to ensure calves of varying age, breed and health are all catered for and that farmers specific rearing objectives are met” says Damian.
John Concannon commented that the last few years of research and development has been costly but it is now rewarding to know that JFC have achieved perfection with the product which is the only one of its type manufactured in Ireland.

“Enterprise Ireland has supported us in the development of this product and there are a lot of advantages with this automated Feeder compared to old way of feeding calves, even with our famous JFC MultiBuckets,” says John.

“This is a cost-effective and time saving way of feeding calves with such accuracy that you can trace what every calf is getting. The Evolution will be used by a lot of beef as well as dairy farmers and it is fully grant aided. We hope to have at least 100 of them manufactured and sold both here and in the UK between now and the end of the year,” added John.
The Evolution is a self-cleaning Feeder which carries out a cleaning cycle twice daily. “It feeds the calves and then does the washing-up” says Damian.
It is a money-saving and time-saving device that feeds at a consistent volume and temperature thus producing better quality and more evenly finished cattle for the ever-changing and technologically advancing Agri sector.

“Plastic is our forte at JFC and our R&D team have come up with a hygienic automated Calf Feeder which is a massive leap for us from when we developed the JFC Multi-Bucket which caused a lotta’ laughs on TV a long time ago,” concluded John Concannon with a laugh.

JFC launch the Evolution Calf Feeder in Ireland at the National Ploughing Championship on Tuesday, 18th September.