The Dealer hears Lakeland has completed a governance review following the merger with LacPatrick this time last year.

The review proposals now need to get shareholder approval at a special general meeting (SGM) set for September instead of May because of COVID-19.

There will be 13 new electoral areas, down from 22, based on supplier members, with eight in the Republic and five in Northern Ireland.

The maximum length on the board has been dropped from 12 years (three four-year terms) to 10 years (two five-year terms). The resolution will require a two-thirds majority of those member milk suppliers at SGM and then two-thirds of all members.

Larry loads up boots with top sides

Last week was a tough one for the beef industry, with the UK lockdown and McDonald’s closures putting pressure on the market.

Some Irish meat processors in Northern Ireland also had to deal with walk-outs by staff who were not happy with their working conditions and protective clothing. South of the border, however, employee relations seem to be much better.

ABP workers in Clones, Co Monaghan, were each given a full topside of beef going out the gate on Friday evening.

The Dealer has two theories on this:

A: The place is full of beef that can’t be shifted, so it’s being offloaded to the workers, or

B: Larry saw what happened in ABP Lurgan last week and, rather than risk the same thing happening south of the border, he decided to load up the car boots with topside to keep everybody on side.

Which one it is, I just can’t decide.

The doctor and the dairy farmer

Few of us ever heard of an infectious disease specialist until COVID-19 hit.

Now, we can scarcely turn on our radios and TVs without hearing the authoritative voices of Monaghan native, Dr Sam McConkey and the chief medical officer Tony Holohan.

McConkey tells us we’re going to be ravaged by the virus, but in a very reassuring manner.

Well, I’ve been told that Dr Sam has an even more famous brother – Lakeland board member Andrew McConkey, who previously kept LacPatrick alive as chair of the former Monaghan co-op. One’s a doctor, the other is a merger-dealing dairy farmer. Clearly, talent runs deep in the family.

Meanwhile, I’m told the much admired chief medical officer Tony Holohan, has strong Limerick connections.

His mother comes from Cappamore and is one of the Ryan ‘Luke’ family and his uncle Paddy Ryan ‘Luke’ would be well known in farming circles as secretary of Cappamore Show for the guts of 50 years.

Now we have him.

Andrew McConkey.

Animal activist ethics questioned

The Dealer watched with morbid fascination as a spat between well-known Cork dairy farmer Peter Hynes and animal activist group PETA UK unfolded online.

Hynes accused PETA of taking his sweet video of his young daughter reading a book to calves on their farm and using it on its own Twitter page to promote an anti-dairy message.

PETA’s caption included the line: “Sadly, most cows on dairy farms are slaughtered when they’re five or six. We hope that these babies will be spared the horrors of the abattoir.”

Twitter guidelines

While Hynes is demanding it removes the video, PETA says it is working within Twitter’s official guidelines.

With strong supporters on both sides, The Dealer doesn’t think this one is going to die down anytime soon.

Hackett, Daly and D’Arcy elected

Pat Deering was the most high-profile casualty of a hotly contested battle among 25 candidates for the 11 agriculture panel Seanad seats.

Pippa Hackett, the Green Party’s agriculture spokesperson was elected, as was Paul Daly, the outgoing Fianna Fáil Seanad agriculture spokesperson. Hackett and Daly farm.

Deering’s Fine Gael colleagues Tim Lombard and Junior Minister Michael D’Arcy, (both farmers) and Paddy Burke were elected, Burke for a seventh time.

Victor Boyhan (Independent) topped the poll, followed closely by Denis O’Donovan (FF) and Lynn Boylan (SF).

Eugene Murphy, Niall Blaney, (both FF), and Annie Hoey (Labour) were also elected.

Former ICSA president Patrick Kent and Ian Marshall, the former UFU president and Cork farmer Kevin O’Keeffe (FF) all lost out.

Kerry CEO’s pay rises to €3.9m

Flicking through Kerry’s annual report, I see the total pay packet for CEO Edmond Scanlon jumped to €3.9m last year. This includes a basic salary of €1.1m, a cash bonus of almost €1m and shares worth over €1.6m.

Over in Glanbia, plc boss Siobhan Talbot has been provisionally awarded almost 240,000 shares in Glanbia under the group’s long-term incentive plan. Based on Glanbia’s current share price these shares are valued at €2.2m but Talbot will not be granted the shares fully until 2022 and only if the company meets certain growth targets.

Meanwhile, I see Greencore CEO Patrick Coveney has agreed to take a 30% cut in his base salary of €850,000 for the next three months due to the COVID-19 crisis.