Gallery Rural Life How can we keep kids safe in our most dangerous workplace? Farms are generally regarded as both a great place to grow up and yet one of the most dangerous places to be a child.
News ‘We shouldn’t have farmers having to farm into their 70s’: Martin Heydon An early retirement scheme may not be the simple solution to prevent farm accidents among older farmers, according to Martin Heydon, Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture.
Gallery News Premium Wexford farmers have their say on agri-emission targets – ‘We need to survive out here!’
Comment Premium Darragh McCullough Opinion Darragh McCullough: People clueless about sacrifices farmers must make to hit emissions targets
Comment Premium Eamon O’Connell: Why €600 is a small price to pay for vaccination if it keeps 100 cows alive You need to get a good return on your investment — this was something I learned at a very young age. I remember my father telling me: “If you clean the cubicle shed and the calf pens, Ill give you a calf.”
Finance Premium Effort to incorporate business may not be as taxing as harder-hit farmers fear There are still a sizeable number of high personal tax paying farmers who would benefit handsomely by incorporating their farming businesses.
Gallery Advice Premium Cost-effective ways to find the extra winter housing space when expanding your flock When Richard and Linda Woodmartin expanded their flock from 180 to 290 ewes over the last two years, one of their biggest concerns was finding the extra winter housing.
Beef Premium Gerry Giggins: Leaving hay bales in the fields is a lost opportunity The old art of hay making and the long laborious process that it once was, has nowadays been superseded by a much quicker and easier process, provided of course that we get favourable weather.
Gallery Dairy Farm Profiles Faroe Islands: Inside the largest dairy farm on this rugged land The family of dairy farmer Roi Absalonsen has been working the heavy volcanic landscape of Eidsvik, Vidoy on the Faroe Islands — located 320km north of Scotland, and about halfway between Norway and Iceland — for a staggering 25 generations.
Farming Premium Why whaling and dolphin hunting is widely supported on the Faroe Islands An estimated 1,400 dolphins were killed during a single hunt in the North Atlantic waters of the Faroe Islands last year.
Gallery Sheep ‘Faroese sheep are among the best mothers in the world’ – meet the sheep breeder continuing his nation’s unique traditions Sheep breeder Eyðun Eliassen has worked the Faroese breed on the mountains surrounding the small village of Trøllanes at the northern end of the Faroe Islands for the last 20 years.
Gallery Sheep Faroe Islands’ lamb and meat trade operates ‘like the wild west’ The development of the agricultural sector on the Faroe Islands “is always sacrificed” to protect the fishing industry where 90pc of product (mainly farmed salmon) is exported.
Play ‘I get a great kick out of lambing, I take great interest in the sheep and I think it’s just bred into me’
Premium Gallery Going organic, going green, going big –salad leaf giant McCormack’s Farm explain why they have grown organic spinach for the first time
Gallery Beef Prices Quotes largely unchanged despite factories’ best efforts Despite repeated efforts by factories over the last two weeks to pull prices, quotes remain unchanged.
Cattle Mart Trade Grass shortage lifts numbers of forward stock but prices only slip a small bit Trade on the mart circuit last week was dominated by increased numbers of forward and beef cattle, with a corresponding fall-off of lighter animals in many areas.
Gallery Lamb Prices Lambs quotes steady as cull ewes rise by 5-10c/kg There appeared to be conflict among the factories yesterday morning about how well the retail market was performing.
Gallery Leinster Farm Sales Small is beautiful in the midlands as 39ac Offaly holding is guided at €320k Smaller holdings seem to be the flavour of the month around the country, and the midlands is no different. Typical of many farming properties on the market at the moment is a 38.9ac non-residential farm at Ballymullen, 3km from Daingean in Co Offaly, about 15km from Tullamore.
Play Connacht Farm Sales Scenic Maam Valley holding on the market for €650k Hill farms in the west generally come to the market as commonage, it is unusual to find an extensive a holding for sale that is totally in private ownership.
Gallery Leinster Farm Sales 144ac Wexford farm can do beef or milk One of the bigger farms to come on the market in Co Wexford in recent times is a 144ac residential holding with an extensive yard at Knockadawk and Ballyart, just off the Kilmuckridge road.
Gallery Leinster Farm Sales Over €27,000/ac paid for Kilcock land in pre-holiday flurry of auction activity The August bank holiday weekend marks the beginning of an informal break in land auctions.
Gallery Leinster Farm Sales 220ac Kildare farm makes €18,250/ac Farmland in south Leinster is the most expensive in Ireland — with the exception of Dublin — and holdings from Kildare to Wexford are recording prices from €15,000/ac to an unusual figure of €57,000/ac paid for a 3ac field near Gorey.
Gallery Leinster Farm Sales 234ac Kilkenny farm with renovation project potential for €10,000-15,000/ac Left distraught by his county’s All-Ireland hurling final defeat, Castlecomer auctioneer Joe Coogan has the consolation of handling the sale of the biggest Kilkenny farm to come on the market for some time.
Gallery News Europe’s parched earth hits corn hard as climate crisis resounds Searing temperatures are shrivelling corn crops across Europe, in the latest sign of a deepening crisis that spans everything from Rhine River transport to Spanish olive growers.
Gallery Farming News Tuscany’s famed wine and olive oil industry suffers from heatwave and drought Farmers in Tuscany, the heart of Italy’s prized wine and olive oil industry, are battling to salvage as much as they can of this year’s crop from the ravages of drought and heatwave.
Gallery News Why salt farmers are the unwitting winners of France’s drought Through blistering heatwaves and drought that have parched the French countryside in recent weeks, one group has emerged a reluctant winner; salt farmers in the northwestern region of Guerande.
News Extreme conditions will mean more dairy shortages, French and Swiss producers warn In the French and Swiss Alps the extreme heat is causing the amount of available water and green grass to drop. Farmers have warned they are facing shortages as they are forced to buy expensive fodder and sell dairy cattle to abattoirs.
Comment Jim O'Brien Opinion Winding our way out of the súgáns of memory, straining for something beyond
Comment Premium Darragh McCullough Opinion Darragh McCullough: People clueless about sacrifices farmers must make to hit emissions targets
Dairy Advice Premium Peter Hynes: 2030 emissions targets can be exceeded if everyone will work together
Gallery Farm Property Premium Property price survey: Dairy farmers dominate the market as farm values surge War, inflation and energy shortages are having no impact on land sales where prices remain high, with no shortage of customers from across the farming sectors and beyond.
Comment Margaret Donnelly Opinion When will farmland’s bull run come to an end? We’ve all heard the oft-quoted phrase: ‘Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.’ Having read Jim O’Brien’s six-month review of the agricultural land market, it’s a phrase that seems truer than ever.
Gallery Munster Farm Sales Premium Overall acre price of €17,858 in Munster exceeds the national average
Gallery Farm Property Premium Property price survey: Dairy farmers dominate the market as farm values surge
Gallery Leinster Farm Sales Premium Price survey shows total sales of €9.775m in the South Leinster area
Comment Premium Eamon O’Connell: Why €600 is a small price to pay for vaccination if it keeps 100 cows alive You need to get a good return on your investment — this was something I learned at a very young age. I remember my father telling me: “If you clean the cubicle shed and the calf pens, Ill give you a calf.”
Gallery Dairy Advice Premium Eamon O’Connell: Warts are a scourge in heifers and there’s only one way to get rid of them – perseverance "Throw your eye over her and I’ll be with you in five minutes.”
Gallery Farming Premium Eamon O’Connell: Why no TB, a blind lamb, one freemartin and a saved calf is like a vet’s dream day “Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life”.
Dairy Advice Premium Eamon O’Connell: If your head is in the sand, your rear end is in the air and it will get kicked! I had to call on the services of our electrician yet again last week. The very old building that is the base for our vet practice is defying all logic when it comes to wiring. At one point, when we put in electric gates, they would only work when the sensor light at the back door came on. Yet, our excellent electrician keeps calling when he’s needed, despite the invariable mess that awaits him.
Legal Advice Premium Legal advice: My uncle rents out his land with no written contracts. Can his tenants claim squatter’s rights and ruin my inheritance?
Premium Legal advice: My ex-husband’s last will left the farm to our son. But then he died unexpectedly, leaving a pregnant second wife. Does our son still get the land?
Premium Legal advice: ‘I thought I would inherit the family farm and house, but now my siblings want sites’
Premium Legal advice: Our new townie neighbour is trying to stop us upgrading our parlour and is now spreading lies about us on social media. How can I stop him?
Premium Legal advice: My husband’s uncle died without a will and the farm he was promised is now being split
