I have yet to see Pilgrim Hill and looking at where it is on, it seems the nearest place is going to be Newbridge for a single viewing on Thursday May 16th. Reading the reviews reveals it to be shot as if part documentary, part feature film. Jimmy ?Walsh is a bachelor farmer who is part carer to his aged father. His only company are his cows and a friend Tommy who talks of emigrating. ?The film shows [...]
We keep hearing of China growing in terms of population and wealth – how so many more Chinese are introducing dairy produce into their diet, how they wish to emulate the Western diet, how the middle classes are growing and how they are spending more on ‘Western-type’ food products. Apparently two huge New Zealand farm dairies have been bought by the Chinese so they can supply to the growing demand for dairy. All sounds good for dairy farmers worldwide doesn’t [...]
So much for me waffling about positivity in my last post and there’s so many farmers in crisis at the moment. The news are full of stories of farmers in the UK and Ireland (with Antrim being hit worst in Ireland) suffering huge losses of sheep and lambs. Many farmers choose for their lambs to be born at this time of the year so the weather is mild enough (usually) for them to lamb outdoors, hence they don’t have the [...]
Where’s the pride gone in Irish farming? Most American farming blogs communicate a sense of pride in their chosen career, in how they farm, their farming practices, their ability to produce food for so many people, the fact that they are a 4th or 5th or even a 6th generation family farm. ?Irish farmers seem to be stereotyped as looking for [...]
Have you heard about the cap reforms and wondered what it is all about? As you might have seen on last night’s news, 5,000 farmers travelled to Cork to protest outside Coveney’s office yesterday. We didn’t go – Brian because he had to milk etc, even on a Sunday, his ‘essential work’ takes 5 hours in the morning and up to 4 hours in the evening and that’s with me feeding the calves which still takes me 45-70 min per [...]
