14 minute read
HOME SWEET HOME
Glen Keen has been farmed by Catherine O’Grady Powers’ family since the 1600s, but, like many other teenagers, when she was finishing school she couldn’t wait to leave the rural environment she’d grown up in. She moved first to London, found a good job with Ryanair, and met her husband Jim. They had moved together to the US when she was asked to come home and take over the family farm.
“Farming would have always been this big part of my life, so it was an easy enough decision for me,” she says. “I’d always loved home and I always had it somewhere in the back of my head to return home. But we soon found out that sheep farming wasn’t sustainable to create a livelihood in the West of Ireland.”
Glen Keen is located outside Louisburgh, Co Mayo. It’s the 26th largest farm in the country and predominantly a mountain sheep farm. Catherine and Jim realised that the farm needed a lot of investment and upgrading when they returned and, as a result, they poured money into it.
“It was our project and we wanted to improve everything,” Catherine explains. “You take on a project and you’re enthusiastic and you’re always focused on the end goal. You have a dream – it’s a wonderful dream and we thought it was a great place to raise our family. But the dream came to an abrupt end when we realised there really was no return.”
The wool market has all but collapsed since the 1980s and demand for the blackface mountain sheep has also declined; Catherine says they were selling lamb at just €30 and then one year it went down to as low as €15. She realised she would have to look at other ways to make the farm sustainable. She recalled tourists stopping for a look when her dad was out cutting in the bog, or her uncle stacking the turf on the road, taking photos with an expression of excitement undoubtedly at having stumbled on a section of the ‘real’ Ireland. Tourism, she thought, might be an avenue for success and the pair began researching the possibilities. Two factors provided the necessary confidence – approval for funding by South West Mayo Development Company for a visitor centre, and the proposed launch of the Wild Atlantic Way and the prospect of a major increase in traffic to the area. The farm is situated in a beautiful location on the Mayo-Connemara border. It’s nestled between the Sheeffry and Mweelrea mountain ranges and the Carrowniskey river runs through it. It’s an area of conservation – which is both a challenge and an opportunity for the development of agri-tourism. “It’s a great selling point on one hand but it does create a lot of obstacles – we had to do an environmental impact study and an archaeological site survey,” says Catherine. “We had to extend our budget sizeably and to-date we have an investment here of €1.2 million.”
The visitor centre opened in 2014 and has capacity for 250 guests alongside a traditional tearoom and craft shop. Catherine says they’ve seen very positive results since then, attracting tour buses and winning a contract with CIE. She adds that they haven’t invented or fabricated anything and the aim is to give tourists a real mountain sheep farm experience. She’s packaged the activities she remembers from her childhood – sheep shearing, turf cutting, mountain hikes, traditional Irish music sessions and sheepdog demonstrations – and sells different experiences to the tour operators. In 2015 and 2016 Glen Keen was given CIE’s award of excellence for Best Tour Feature. Though Catherine knows they will never recoup the investment they’ve made, the goal is to make the farm
THE LANDSCAPE OF TRADITIONAL MOUNTAIN SHEEP FARMING IN IRELAND HAS CHANGED DRAMATICALLY.
TOM NEE AND CATHERINE O’GRADY POWERS
TELL EAR TO THE GROUND ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY OF EARNING A LIVING FROM THIS SECTOR AND HOW THEY HAVE DIVERSIFIED TO MAKE THEIR FARMS VIABLE.
Catherine O’Grady Powers on Glen Keen Farm.
Doolough Valley
Chinese students visit Glen Keen Farm.
sustainable. She also admits that balancing the agri-tourism facet with the day-to-day farming can be a challenge.
“My husband still works in the States to support the project here financially,” she says. “We were naïve in our initial plans, thinking we would have secured lots of visitors, but it takes a really long time to build that customer loyalty with the tour operators. We’ve had to hire extra staff then to run the farm.”
Adding a tourism element isn’t the only change they’ve made. Catherine has also looked at how to introduce extra profitmaking avenues for the farm and brought a texel ram breed into the herd in order to produce a more profitable offspring. Two texel rams were introduced to the herd and mated with 100 blackface sheep – according to Catherine they’ve achieved double the price for their lamb, from €30 two years ago to €65. “That’s one avenue and we’re always looking at different routes to make the farm more viable and sustainable. That’s the goal for us here,” she notes.
END OF THE LINE?
Not far away, Killary Farm is situated in the Connemara mountains on the southern shores of Killary Fjord outside Leenagh. Tom Nee, 33, is the fourth generation of his family to farm the land there. It’s a traditional working farm with around 200 ewes and lambs roaming the mountains freely. The farm runs mainly blackhead horned sheep, which are most suited to survive on the mountains during the harsh western winters.
Like Glen Keen, Killary Farm is situated on land that’s now designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Tom says this means he can’t have the sheep numbers that his family used to have and it presents a major obstacle whenever he wants to make any changes to the farm.
“Because the land is SAC it’s a real challenge to get anything done,” he says. “They don’t want any more changes to the land, but it’s too strict. There needs to be some leeway on the SACs.”
Tom loves farming but he too has realised that there is very little return from mountain sheep thanks to those and other factors. “Between the SACs, the price of wool and lamb, I think mountain farming is over. It’s just too hard. You work very hard for very little. You really have to really love what you’re doing because you’re not doing it for the money,” he adds. “The wool industry is gone. It’s game over. We need a better price for our lamb. They were dear enough now last spring but that was because of the bad weather. We need a small bit better price for what we’re producing and it needs to happen fast. I just hope everything is going to improve a bit.”
To subsidise his earnings, Tom too has looked to tourism. Five years ago he opened his farm to visitors and he says that so far it’s going well, helped by his proximity to the Wild Atlantic Way. He also provides visitors with an authentic farm experience, including sheepdog demonstrations, sheep shearing, turf cutting, bottle-feeding lambs and countryside walks overlooking the beautiful Killary Fjord.
The summer is busy in particular. The farm has three set times a day for visits, so though there are a lot of drop-ins Tom says it helps that they have to come at those preset times. A lot of people pre-book through his website and he also works with some smaller tour companies. Because the farm entrance is quite narrow, he can’t attract the bigger tour operators. So how does he manage to juggle his farm work with up to three daily visits? “I start early. If I wasn’t doing the farm visits I’d be doing another job somewhere and I might have to travel as far as Galway city to find one, like a lot of farmers are,” he says. “So I’m up at six and I do all my jobs I have to do on the farm. The first visit starts at 11am and the last visit starts at 3pm and that goes on till 5pm. Then I work late into the evening. It’s no different to if I was travelling in and out of Galway a few days a week.”
Those are long days and undoubtedly can be tough, but Tom explains that he really enjoys hosting the tours and is grateful that he’s been able to make a better living this way. For many, it’s a more palatable alternative to sitting in commuter traffic each day, an opportunity to be outside in this beautiful landscape and meet new people.
“I love the visits and seeing how interested the people are in what we’re doing,” he explains. “And I do love farming. I love being on the land and I love where I live and I want to try to continue doing what I do.”
Turf-cutting at Killary farm Feeding time for the herd at Glen Keen farm
MAIREAD MCGUINNESS
MEP, FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, DISCUSSES THE CONCEPT OF A ‘GENUINE’ FARMER IN CAP REFORM.
Mairead McGuinness. ©European Union 2018
When I was young, the world was a much simpler place. Back in the day, a farmer was a farmer and we all understood what that meant. He – yes, usually it was he – milked the cows, tilled the land and was a shepherd to his flock. The farmer’s wife looked after the hens and managed the household. Farmers knew the seasons.
Fast forward to today’s more complicated rural world, grappling with pressures on our natural environment (soil, water, biodiversity) as well as dealing with floods and droughts. The recently-published proposals to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced the concept of a ‘genuine’ farmer. Five years ago we spoke about and tried to define an ‘active’ farmer – but that didn’t work.
Some would say that all farmers are ‘genuine’, but in the reform proposals the fine-tuning of the definition of a ‘genuine’ farmer is left to the member states to decide within rather complicated parameters set by the European Commission. The reason why the definition is required is to ensure that money from the CAP goes to ‘genuine’ farmers. This suggests that the Commission is of the view that some of the budget is not going where it should. It is a widely-shared view among farmers and the statistic of 80 per cent of payments going to 20 per cent of farmers continues to irk.
Whenever two farmers are gathered there is a discussion about the unfairness in the division of CAP payments. But, like the natural reticence in declaring the size of your farm, few will disclose the amount they receive from Brussels for fear of raising eyebrows about how much or how little they get. Of course, the information is published every year on the website of the Department of Agriculture, the names of the top ten recipients make headline news, and the debate begins again about how unfair the system is. In an attempt to address these issues, the Commission wants to pay the money to ‘genuine’ farmers and wants each country to decide who is genuine or not.
The proposal is that no EU support can be granted to those whose agricultural activity forms only an insignificant part of their overall economic activities or those whose principal business activity is not agricultural. In addition, the definition agreed in each member state must not exclude, by definition, pluri-active farmers – i.e. those who are actively farming, but who are also engaged in non-agricultural activities outside their farm – long-hand for parttime farmers.
Capping of payments at a maximum level is also proposed at €100,000 but member states can reduce payments above €60,000 or could decide that no farmer gets more than €60,000 of a payment. The catch is that labour costs can be deducted in determining capping, which completely dilutes the potential impact of the proposal. Don’t be surprised if the loudest voices demand an absolute cap of €60,000 without any reference to labour costs.
It will be difficult to get agreement on many of the CAP reform proposals, not least the definition of a ‘genuine’ farmer. And we will have to answer the question – who do we want to target the supports to? The most common answer is the small to medium farmer, without any reference to what we mean. There are small farmers who completely rely on their farms and on support from the EU budget. There are small farmers with significant off-farm professions, and there are some landowners who do not farm but keep the land in the required good agricultural and environmental condition. And there are those family farms where the farmer is full-time on the farm or who continues to produce lambs, milk, beef, grain and other crops and where the CAP payments are vital. Of course, some of these farms have spouses with off-farm income. From those scenarios, which farmer is ‘genuine’?
So stand up ‘genuine’ farmers and claim your money. ‘Fake’ farmers – stand back.
A
ANOTHER FODDER CRISIS COULD BE ON THE CARDS THANKS TO POOR WEATHER CONDITIONS THIS YEAR.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has described the potential fodder crisis in the months ahead as “unprecedented”, with President Pat McCormack referring to the Government response so far as inadequate. Dry weather and a lack of rain in recent weeks and months has resulted in very little grass growth, with sustained rain required to avert a crisis. While many farmers managed to get one cut of silage earlier this year it looks like a second harvest won’t happen in some parts. Meanwhile, the availability of straw is down and prices are soaring. The Government’s Fodder Co-ordination Group, chaired by Teagasc, was tasked by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed (who recently announced a s2.75 million scheme to encourage the planting of fast-growing crops to make up for hay and silage shortfalls) with coordinating advice and guidance for Irish farmers in replenishing depleted fodder stocks during the spring and summer, and has been asked to continue its work in the months ahead.
“As I have indicated previously, it is not only Ireland but also other EU Member States that are affected by this dry spell. I have requested that the Commission ensure the earliest approval of advance direct support payments this autumn in order to support farmers cope with this prolonged challenging period,” Minister Creed said. “I have asked that the work of the group continue into the Autumn period and to provide on-going guidance and assistance to impacted farmers and I will be actively monitoring this situation through engagement both with the group and its members.”
For its part, the ICMSA has recommended a series of ten measures to be taken to avert the impending crisis:
• Feed importation through a fodder support scheme. • Maximum price paid by processors alongside a temporary reduction of stock numbers for some farmers and a campaign to boost live exports. • Amend driver regulations of delivery of feed to ensure it’s delivered on time. • Irish Water and other state agencies should make water available to farmers when they need it. • Extension of the September closing date for spreading fertiliser. • Amend GLAS rules particularly relating to speciesrich grassland and traditional hay meadows, allowing farmers to spread more fertiliser to grow and harvest this grass. • Allow farmers to lease surplus land between now and December under the ANC scheme but maintain their entitlement to ANC payment. • Introduce the Brexit Loan Scheme for farmers without delay to relieve cashflow pressures. • Loan restructuring facilitated by financial institutions without penalty. • Encourage farmers to seek help and ensure the relevant agencies have a proactive response.
“If the weather between now and next April goes against us, we are facing an unprecedented crisis and concrete measures are needed now and immediately to minimise the impact,” the ICSA said in a statement. “The fodder deficits on farms are growing by the day and this is across all types and sizes of farms and we now require a comprehensive response from Government to prevent a potential disaster in the coming winter/spring period. ICMSA members, Mr McCormack said, across [Ireland] are reporting very serious potential problems and are clearly saying that every effort must be made to boost fodder supplies in the country and secondly reduce demand for fodder where possible.”
FARMING: THE NEXT
MACRA NA FEIRME’S DERRIE DILLON TALKS TO EAR TO THE GROUND ABOUT THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE FOR YOUNG IRISH FARMERS AND THE HURDLES THEY FACE IN 2018.
