Maybe the time has come just to ‘say a word for the farmer’

Country Living with Francis Farragher

I have never had any chit-chat with Roderick O’Sullivan, and to be honest about it, I don’t have any great desire to meet the man, but it’s been a while since I read such a vitriolic piece against the farming community as I did in last week’s Connacht Tribune.  Bile is probably a kind word to use in terms of his regard for farmers and I couldn’t but conclude after reading his tirade against the farming community, that as a young lad he must have received a kick from a cantankerous cow, and never quite recovered psychologically from it.

I’m a farmer of sorts myself and I know many more involved in the business of agriculture. Hand on heart, I would have to say that 99.9% of those people I know are careful, conscientious and considerate about how they go about their business.

His reference to cattle-rearing complexes is in reality the investment that farmers have made over the years to house cattle during the sodden winter months, when feeding them outdoors would turn the fields into muck and make life hell for every person of the land, who would have to try and bring feed to stock in the fields.

The slurry produced by cattle, referred to by the writer in the most revolting terms he could use, including the word vomit, is of course the waste produced by the animals that’s stored in underground tanks (‘not supposedly stored’), and which is rich in the nutrients that land can use to maintain its fertility – primarily potash and phosphorous and some nitrogen too.

Farmers across Ireland and indeed across the UK and EU block of countries face the most exacting standards in terms of when they can spread slurry on the ground with a ban on mid-winter output, while it would make no sense at all for anyone to spread slurry if there is heavy rain on the way.

The maths on this is quite simple: with chemical fertiliser costs now running up to €1,000 a tonne, every farmer will want to get the maximum return from the slurry that he or she will spread during the spring-summer period. Spreading slurry that would run into rivers or streams would be like . . . well, just pouring your money down the drain.

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.