Farming
Hill farmers face extinction with new inspections
TWENTY two organisations covering a wide span of farming and environmental interests have written to the Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, warning him that land eligibility assessments now in place, will lead to rural depopulation and the ‘abandonment’ of natura lands.
The letter – signed by Colm O’Donnell of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association – and supported by 21 other organisations, warns that recent reductions in land eligibility following Dept. inspections will have disastrous concequences for places like Castledaly and Derrybrien in South Galway.
Farmers are now finding themselves in a ‘damned if they do and damned if they don’t’ scenario as Dept. inspectors rule out thousands of acres of land for EU payments on the grounds of agricultural under-utilisation.
Back the years, farmers were forced to undergo destocking programmes because of overgrazing on the hills – now they find themselves penalised for not carrying out enough farming activity on the same lands.
“Evidence from monitoring of commonages in recent years has shown a trajectory of improvement and now is the time to build on this improvement – not abandon the extensive agricultural use of these areas on which their biodiversity, landscape character and local communities depend,” said Colm O’Donnell in an open letter to Minister Simon Coveney.
He warns that if the Dept. doesn’t row back on its current policy of imposing massive reductions in land eligibility that there will be five main consequences:
■ Widespread land abandonment.
■ Significant loss of biodiversity.
■ A negative impact on farm productivity and Ireland’s international green image.
■ It will lead to a breach of European Nature Directives.
■ It will have a severe economic and social impact on rural communities.
Mr. O’Donnell’s letter to the Minister also warns that what is even more worrying is the Department’s imminent plans to systematically interpret the eligibility rules to further reduce the reference areas on similar lands on a much wider scale.
He said that these eligibility cuts were being carried out at a time when ‘considerable flexibility’ was granted by the EU to member states to define appropriate eligibility criteria, taking into account established local practices in their region.
“There is considerable flexibility granted to member states to define appropriate eligibility criteria taking into account established local practices in their region.
“The Commission has clearly delegated to member states the flexibility to consider eligible permanent grassland which can be grazed and which forms part of established local practices where grasses and other herbaceous forage are traditionally not predominant.
“This is further clarified in Commission Guidance document DSCG/2014/33 on the Land Parcel Identification System,” Mr. O’Donnell’s letter states.
Among the organisations supporting the stance of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association are BirdWatch Ireland, several wildlife groups, farm advisers, local gaming and gun clubs and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association.
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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MINISTER for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, has been asked to review a decision taken over recent weeks to exclude the sheep farming sector from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR).
East Galway Independent TD, Seán Canney, has called on the Agriculture Minister and Government to ‘revisit’ the issue of sheep farmers and the BAR fund.
Galway IFA Chair, Stephen Canavan, also said that a mistake had been made in terms of excluding the sheep sector from the BAR funding.
“I think that there is no doubt whatsoever that Brexit had a major impact in terms of New Zealand lamb exports flooding the UK market.
“The knock-on affect of that on Irish sheep farmers was a serious fall-back on lamb and hogget prices through the early months of this year.
“There are now serious concerns that the farmers who buy in store lambs through the early autumn period will just pull out of this market after getting such a scalding over the past six months or so,” said Stephen Canavan.
According to Deputy Seán Canney, all of the Regional Group of TDs are backing the move to get the Government to have another look at the use of the BAR fund for the sheep sector.
“The evidence that sheep farming was affected by Brexit is strong and the decision not to support people in this sector needs to be reversed immediately.
“Brexit negotiations began in June 2016 and caused turmoil in the sheep trade as it weakened the currency making UK lamb far more competitive.
“The notion or threat of ‘a no deal ‘ in Brexit caused the price of sheep to fluctuate repeatedly in the trade and resulted in lambs selling for an estimated €30-€50 lower per head each year during the entire Brexit process,” said Deputy Canney.
WITH the exception of Leitrim, Galway was marginally the cheapest county in the west and north-west to buy non-residential farmland during the course of 2022, according to the latest national survey of prices.
The survey showed that the average price of an acre of ‘good land’ in Galway last year, for holdings under 50-acres, was €9,500 – the dearest was Donegal at €12,143 while the cheapest was Leitrim at €6,140 an acre.
Jointly researched by Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCCI) and Teagasc, the survey also indicated that only 0.5% of land in Ireland goes up for sale each year, a major factor in terms of demand for leased land.
‘Good land’ in Mayo [under 50-acres] averaged out at €10,092; the figure for Roscommon was €9,938; with Sligo coming in at €9,550.
When it came to a comparison of poorer quality land in Connacht [under 50-acres], Mayo was the cheapest at €2,886 followed by Leitrim on €3,300 while Galway topped ‘poor land price league’ at €5,375 per acre.
Auctioneer Martin O’Connor of DNG O’Connor, Oughterard, said that the market was being driven by dairy farmers ‘who are continually ranked throughout the survey as the most likely purchasers of land across the country’.
He said that changes in the European Nitrates Directive in relation to improving water quality meant that many dairy farmers needed more land to comply with this directive.
“In order to maintain current levels of milk production – and to comply with the directive – many dairy farms will need to either increase their land area or reduce milk production.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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