The farm was one of five finalists whose farms were honoured for their outstanding Farm Safety standards at a special function in Dungarvan.

The Awards which are in association with Teagasc and confined to farms in County Waterford aim to highlight good Farm Safety Standards on farm with the winner receiving a prize to the value of €2,000 along with a Waterford Crystal trophy.

Presenting the awards Cathal Lowe, Chief Executive, and Hooper Dolan Insurances said,

“Firstly I want to say how delighted we at Hooper Dolan are to sponsor an award scheme to help promote good Farm Safety Standards on our farms across county Waterford, as farm accidents have become such a huge problem across the county and indeed the country. The response to our new Farm Safety Award scheme has been very encouraging for such a new scheme. I want to congratulate and thank our five finalists for their cooperation and high farm safety standards and in particular our overall winners Noel and Sinead Griffin who are fantastic role models for other farms to follow.

The winning Griffin farm is a family run dairy farm where Noel, Sinead and family have the highest standard of farm safety from their dairy parlour, calf and winter housing, slurry facilities, farmyard lighting, machinery as well as a children’s play area. While they also have constructed a special road underpass to avoid cows crossing a busy main road twice daily

Chairman of the judging panel John McNamara, Teagasc Health & Safety Officer said

“Farming needs constant health and safety management to prevent accidents due to its hazardous nature.    As a Judge of the Awards, we found that participants very motivated to manage farm health and safety on a continuing basis plus all had fully updated Risk Assessment Documents.

In addition we observed numerous innovative safety features to solve farm specific problems clearly showing that farm safety was in participant mind-sets.

The four other award finalists who each received framed certificates are John P & Bernie Nugent, Rathgormack Co Waterford – Matthew Fogarty, Whitechurch, Cappagh Co Waterford – Maurice Hallahan Grange Co Waterford – Jim McGrath, Ballinameela, Co Waterford

A judge’s special merit award was also presented to Jim McGrath Ashleigh Farms and was accepted by his sons Jason & James.