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Recalling a time in Irish rural life when man and horse worked in unison

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A time when man and horse worked together to break the soil.

MARK McGAUGH, a staunch Mayo man from Ballycurran, Headford (postal), put pen to paper in recalling an era of Irish life during the ‘40s and ‘50s, when man and horse came together to ‘break the soil’ in springtime for the planting of the crops. His story, The Ploughman, is one of a number included in a new book entitled Around the Garden Gate Collection just published.

BY the time I left Ireland for foreign shores, the tractor had commenced to gradually replace the horse as the preferred method of ploughing and carrying out lots of other farm related work, but I will add that we did not have a tractor on our land at the time of my departure in January, 1960.

So it does not surprise me when I think of the days I spent on the farm, that my memory recalls the time I spent with the horse ploughing, harrowing, drilling, and scuffling the beet. We were part of a team with the horse playing the leading role, and a working relationship was established which was based on trust, kindness, and the will and desire to finish the job in hand.

Perhaps it is in the springtime from March/April onwards when those visions were most crystallised, and among the memories is the first ploughing day of spring. I pictured the cold morning air when the horses were taken from the stables, and they almost appeared to be looking forward to the day’s work ahead. They were alert and frisky with their heads held high, and the sparkle on their coats gave the impression that they are eagerly awaiting the task of ploughing the land.

There was an age difference in the two horses, with Fanny barely two years old, and she had only been broken in the previous autumn, while Blackie was an experienced six-year-old who had done every job expected from him on the farm. These tasks included pulling the common and spring harrow once the field was ploughed, the smaller plough for drilling the field where the various seeds would be sown at a later date. The horse’s work was seldom finished as throughout the spring and summer and into the autumn the horse was always in demand.

One clear memory I have is from the first ploughing of the spring time when there might be still some slight frost on the ground. There was a great deal of preparation to be done beforehand. The old Pearce manufactured plough had to be prepared, with both wheels being oiled, the cross checked, with a touch of paint added to give the impression to the neighbours that it was a very useful and important piece of equipment.

The horses employed might be Clydesdale or Suffolk, but they also required some serious preparation for the long hard days ahead. We had a blacksmith named John Molloy in the village who had carried on the traditions of his father and grandfather before him, of turning long metal rods of iron into properly fitting shoes for the horses in the local villages, and many a happy hour I spent pulling the bellows in order to get the necessary heat up for the making of the shoes.

I recall the aroma when ‘the smithy’ first tested the red hot steel on the horse’s hooves to ascertain the correct fitting. The properly fitted steel shoes were essential for the horses to get a grip on the soft soil as they trudged along turning the deep heavy soil onto its side. The ploughing was normally done in co-operation with another relative or more often with a neighbour as very few farmers had more than one horse, and two horses were needed to pull the heavy plough.

Connacht Tribune

Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety

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Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche

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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Connacht Tribune

Calls to ‘revisit’ exclusion of sheep sector from Brexit reserve fund

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Deputy Seán Canney

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.

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Connacht Tribune

Dairy sector driving land market

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Auctioneer Martin O’Connor of DNG O’Connor

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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