The new president of the 8,000- strong farming organisation, the ICSA, Mr John Deegan, plans to "apologise for nothing" during his four-year term of office which begins next week.
The outspoken Wicklow sheep farmer won a narrow victory over two rivals last Sunday night to take over the organisation, which claims to be the oldest in the country.
Recently it changed its name from the Irish Cattletraders and Stockowners' Association to the more manageable Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association.
It represents what farming people call "drystock" farmers - farmers who are not involved in dairying but get their living from rearing beef animals, finishing them for the market, and from sheep flocks.
The 62-year-old Shillelagh man knows this sector depends for a lot of its income from the infamous "cheque in the post" from Brussels.
"I will be defending the system and I make no apologies for that, because what farmers get from Brussels is compensation for poor market returns," he said.
"I'm not going to apologise for anything during my term of office. I will just get on with it and defend the suckler men, the beef finishers and the sheepmen."
Mr Deegan, a father of nine, is well equipped to speak for the sector as he is one of the best- known sheep farmers in the country.
"I run 1,100 ewes and 97 sucker cattle and I grow 30 acres of grain to feed them and I have a total of 360 acres," he said.
"However, when Elizabeth, my wife and myself started out all those years ago from nothing, I bought mountain land. It problably was a mistake because I purchased quantity rather than quality," he said.
"We spent years draining and getting the stones off it and I believe the hardship we got reflected on the children. Not one of my children want to take over the farm," said the former footballer and tug-of-war champion..
"The truth is that I would not encourage them because there is a very poor living for an awful lot of work," he said.
Most of his land is on Aghole mountain, so far south in Wickow that he says he can "stand with one leg in Wicklow, one in Wexford and I could spit into Carlow".
"I suppose you could say I have one of the highest jobs in farming in Ireland because my land reaches up to 2,000 feet."
One of the highlights since his election was a congratulatory call from the president of the Irish Farmers Association, Mr John Dillon.
"I admire John Dillon very much. I like his decency and I like the plain way he speaks. He has his critics, but I am not one of them."
Dillon and Deegan have a lot in common, not least their supporters, who are come from the smaller family holdings in the west and along the western coast.
He pledged his support to John Dillon "where ever there was common ground" in a spirit of mutual respect.
That could prove difficult in the future because the ICSA is the only farm organisation which supports the mid-term CAP reforms put forward by Dr Franz Fischler.
"We support them because they will be good from our point of view and they are bound to reduce the level of bureaucracy which is strangling farming," he said.
Mr Deegan, who has served as vice president of ICSA and was chairman of its sheep committee,will make getting a better deal for Irish consumers one of his priorities.
"I don't believe the Irish consumer should be paying 238 pence for an animal I sell for 82 pence per pound," he said.
"And I will be asking that beef and sheep meat imports from outside the EU be carefully examined for residues and other materials which are banned here not just because of the trade but for the safety of the consumer," he said.