Ear to the Ground

brian_t

The 20th series of Ear to the Ground starts tonight Thursday at 8.30pm on RTE1

In the wake of the Spence family slurry deaths, Ear to the Ground's Helen Carroll investigates the unseen killer present on every farm and meets a near death survivor.

Armagh Bramley apples have attained Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status. This puts them on a par with Champagne and Roquefort cheese, for example, in terms of regionally distinctive food and drink. Sam MacNeice, a grower of Armagh Bramley apples, tells Ella McSweeney how the apple yield is down by 50% this year as a result of poor weather and he talks about doing business with Mr Kipling!

The current trend for craft brewing is good news for apple growers and 7 craft cider makers in Armagh now use Armagh Bramley PGI branding. Greg MacNeice produces MacIvors Cider and has high hopes for the future now that the unique traits of Armagh Bramley apples have been recognised and various Armagh ciders won 6 prizes at this years' Blas na hÉireann awards.

I believe that Darragh talks about GM Potatoes

http://www.rte.ie/tv/eartotheground/thisweek.html

6480

it highlighted a very important thing about mixing slurry , a thing we all take for granted

whelan1

well what do ye think this week?

Cavanjack

whelan1 wrote: »

well what do ye think this week?

Think it was a disgrace that nobody thought of fixing the drive shaft cover on the zero grazer.

navara man

Cavanjack wrote: »

Think it was a disgrace that nobody thought of fixing the drive shaft cover on the zero grazer.

+ 1

SoJoMo

Jaysus what a useless programme

Synopsis of the GM Potato segment
Teagas fellow : well are we only growing these GM potatoes to generate debate
Potato farmers: well we have no intention of growing GM potatoes nor eating them
Customers: I wont buy/eat GM potatoes
Organic grower: Teagas are testing GM potatoes out in the open\wild and the consumer does not want them.
Darragh at end : well there you have it maybe the EU regulations will change the situation

The most interesting part of it was that the potato farmer were against them
Also what yer man said at the end of it about the EU regulations, oh wait now he didnt really say anything about that = useless.
It would have been interesting if he had to explain past, current and possible future regulations etc

Typical RTE lazy programming thats more human interest so as to not scare off the townies.

When they went on to talk about how dangereous slurry pits are I just switched off.
Dont get me wrong acidents are sad etc but come on I watch the news and now know that slurry pits are more dangereous than I thought, I dont need to be reminded with pictures of ambulances\ funerals\distressed families or reconstructions.
And they probably used the recent families slurry pit tradegy to broaden the topic to how dangereous farming is and to quote a few statistics
Again lazy programming going for the human interest story.

When will RTE produce a real farming programme. Jaysus if they just read out the Farmers Journal with a few pictures would nt be a lot better that ETTG

pakalasa

Ya, it's not a Farming programme aimed just at farmers, is it? It's a farming programme aimed at as wide an audience as possible, ie the general public. That's what pays the bills, I guess !!

noddyone2

The whole country will be covered in shaggin windmills. Ugly, noisy blots on the landscape. I understand farmers using them, but them yokes stuck up in any scenic area. Yuck;

SoJoMo

pakalasa wrote: »

Ya, it's not a Farming programme aimed just at farmers, is it? It's a farming programme aimed at as wide an audience as possible, ie the general public. That's what pays the bills, I guess !!

Yeah I suppose you are right Pakalasa, there defo room for a proper farming programme

reilig

noddyone2 wrote: »

The whole country will be covered in shaggin windmills. Ugly, noisy blots on the landscape. I understand farmers using them, but them yokes stuck up in any scenic area. Yuck;

That's why we should all be supportive of Fracking so that we can extract cheap clean natural gas which will fuel every power station in the country. Or would you prefer to build a nuclear reactor for electricity?

I'd prefer to have a windmill outside my window than a gas or an oil well any day. They are close to my house and we don't find them ugly or noisy. In fact, tourists come to the area to see them because they think they are nice!

You can't have your cake and eat it mate!!!!!

noddyone2

Nuclear, please.
There's no accounting for tourist's tastes. Maybe they're bored. I hope you're charging them for looking at you windmills. I presume they're built on your land?
How will 'clean natural gas' fuel Ardnacrusha (one of the ''every'' power stations)?

reilig

noddyone2 wrote: »

Nuclear, please.
There's no accounting for tourist's tastes. Maybe they're bored. I hope you're charging them for looking at you windmills. I presume they're built on your land?
How will 'clean natural gas' fuel Ardnacrusha (one of the ''every'' power stations)?

You presume incorrect. Its not my land. And the windmills are not mine.
Ardnacrusha isn't a power station, its a turbine. It is intended that Moneypoint will be fuelled on Gas in the future. Also, it is in the pipeline that a number of the currently peat fuelled power stations can be fuelled with gas in the future as they were built close to the gas pipeline.

Windmills are cheap, clean and renewable. They provide income to landowners as opposed to lining the pockets of large companies or the greedy government.

Make sure that if we ever go down the route of Nuclear power that you lobby to have it situated close to your home!!!

SoJoMo

reilig wrote: »

You presume incorrect. Its not my land. And the windmills are not mine.
Windmills are cheap, clean and renewable. They provide income to landowners as opposed to lining the pockets of large companies or the greedy government.

Make sure that if we ever go down the route of Nuclear power that you lobby to have it situated close to your home!!!

Well said Reilig, personally I think they are majestic functional works of art providing clean energy that our kids will thank us for using in the future, the japanese are paying a high price for nuclear energy

dzer2

The problem with wind mills is the are not that pleasing to the eye if we decided to build nice buildings and put the turbine inside a coffee shop underneath with a nice country walk closeby we wouldbe better off

bogman_bass

I dont think they are ugly at all

bbam

reilig wrote: »

You presume incorrect. Its not my land. And the windmills are not mine.
Ardnacrusha isn't a power station, its a turbine. It is intended that Moneypoint will be fuelled on Gas in the future. Also, it is in the pipeline that a number of the currently peat fuelled power stations can be fuelled with gas in the future as they were built close to the gas pipeline.

Windmills are cheap, clean and renewable. They provide income to landowners as opposed to lining the pockets of large companies or the greedy government.

Make sure that if we ever go down the route of Nuclear power that you lobby to have it situated close to your home!!!

I agree completely.
We have ten as I look out my window, just across the valley and they are no bother at all. I dont see one downside to them being there at all.
Wind is a business sector that the government should be promoting coming out of the recession. We could Make the turbines and generate the energy, there is no downside.

epfff

bbam wrote: »

I agree completely.
We have ten as I look out my window, just across the valley and they are no bother at all. I dont see one downside to them being there at all.
Wind is a business sector that the government should be promoting coming out of the recession. We could Make the turbines and generate the energy, there is no downside.

I ahree completly too

Birdnuts

bbam wrote: »

I agree completely.
We have ten as I look out my window, just across the valley and they are no bother at all. I dont see one downside to them being there at all.
Wind is a business sector that the government should be promoting coming out of the recession. We could Make the turbines and generate the energy, there is no downside.

The downsides include cost and intermittancy issues. Its very expensive for utilities to accomodate wind power on the grid and this has been a major factor in recent electricity price increases up to now and will be a signficant factor into the future. Because of the intermittancy of wind is has to be backed up by conventionals which significantly negates CO2 savings. Much talk of wind power in this country refers to providing the UK with such power. Yet there is increasing evidence that the British Government/Consumer are less and less keen on paying the high tariffs that would be required to make this viable. As for nuclear I think the success of the French industry would be a better example for us rather worrying about exceptional cases like Japan which had issues like major earthquake zones,old reactors and Tsunamies which are not relevant to this country or modern reactors.

bbam

Birdnuts wrote: »

The downsides include cost and intermittancy issues. Its very expensive for utilities to accomodate wind power on the grid and this has been a major factor in recent electricity price increases up to now and will be a signficant factor into the future. Because of the intermittancy of wind is has to be backed up by conventionals which significantly negates CO2 savings. Much talk of wind power in this country refers to providing the UK with such power. Yet there is increasing evidence that the British Government/Consumer are less and less keen on paying the high tariffs that would be required to make this viable. As for nuclear I think the success of the French industry would be a better example for us rather worrying about exceptional cases like Japan which had issues like major earthquake zones,old reactors and Tsunamies which are not relevant to this country or modern reactors.

Hard to believe it couldn't be backed up with some form of hydro, again either onshore or offshore.


E

Birdnuts

bbam wrote: »

Hard to believe it couldn't be backed up with some form of hydro, again either onshore or offshore.


E

Again costs and the fact that much of that much of that techology is untested/unreliable are significant negative factors when it come to pumped storage. Indeed I beleive one major project mooted some years was subsequently abandoned over such issues.

rancher

bbam wrote: »

I agree completely.
We have ten as I look out my window, just across the valley and they are no bother at all. I dont see one downside to them being there at all.
Wind is a business sector that the government should be promoting coming out of the recession. We could Make the turbines and generate the energy, there is no downside.

Powers that be are planning 400 approx across the midlands........think that might be a bit intrusive

zetecescort

was it just me or was the zero grazing machine for 60k a very expensive way of doing single chop silage?

bob charles

Nuclear is the way forward, and you can built a station right here in my backyard, hopefully all the locals desert the place and I will then have plenty of acres to farm. If they would pipe in a bit of the auld steam of the reactor to heat me house aswell, so best.

manjou

bob charles wrote: »

Nuclear is the way forward, and you can built a station right here in my backyard, hopefully all the locals desert the place and I will then have plenty of acres to farm. If they would pipe in a bit of the auld steam of the reactor to heat me house aswell, so best.

And cattle that glow in the night would be easier to count.

pakalasa

zetecescort wrote: »

was it just me or was the zero grazing machine for 60k a very expensive way of doing single chop silage?

I know some pepole are zero grazing and feeding bulls over the summer months. Seems like a good idea in that you are using the slatted shed at a time when it would just be sitting there unused. No need for expensive fencing for the bulls either. I get the feeling though that guys are not fully on top of the costs involved. I wonder how many factor in the labour and depreciation costs for example.

Farmer Pudsey

rancher wrote: »

Powers that be are planning 400 approx across the midlands........think that might be a bit intrusive

My own opinion is that the wind mill industry in Ireland is the next white elephant. At present they are paid more than the economic cost of the electricity that is produced. At present it cannot be stored, the only way to store is to dam an inlet along the west of Ireland and flood it. A project that by the time land and infrastructure costs are included would cost maybe 20billion. At present the only way in theory to back it up is gas turbines however an investors investing in these want them to run all the time. In Ireland wind is either a feast or a famine. If you construct off shore yes they will run more often however if so you do not need land based one,

This is another project that is tax incentived that is the driving force behind it. Also talking to an engineer he queried the life span specially in ireland where they are turning at faster rates than elsewhere in the world. His opinion is that after 10 years maintenance may be an issue and as all the turbine gear is on top this will be an expensive program.

A cheap Chineese nuclear plant may have to be bought at short notice:eek: to keep the multinationals in Ireland

pakalasa

One of the easiest ways to store surplus energy is through the eletrolysis of water and then burning the hydrogen again to generate electricity when it is needed. I've often wondered would it be feasible on a small scale, as in, at the site of the wind generators. Siemens are doing research on it at the moment. They hope to have something by 2015.
http://www.siemens.com/innovation/apps/pof_microsite/_pof-spring-2012/_html_en/electrolysis.html

6480

pakalasa wrote: »

I know some pepole are zero grazing and feeding bulls over the summer months. Seems like a good idea in that you are using the slatted shed at a time when it would just be sitting there unused. No need for expensive fencing for the bulls either. I get the feeling though that guys are not fully on top of the costs involved. I wonder how many factor in the labour and depreciation costs for example.

them guys were just on the show to sell the machines i fed the cows in while milking this year for a few hours and out they go again , its too long of a winter to kept them never mind in the summer no matter how bad the weather is

SoJoMo

Imagine the ****e that would go on in this country if they started into building multibillion euro nuclear stations, jesus people really do have short memories.

Imagine if Priory Hall was a Nuclear Power Station. We can't even regulate the movement of money around the economy without it ending in tears.

Allowing nuclear stations in this country would be like giving a baby a loaded gun.
The Japanese are not known for their risk taking and are great safe engineers, and all their so-called safe-guards came to naught.

We have dodgy builders, weak politicians and sleeping regulators = a lethal mix when it comes to nuclear power

periodictable

People tend to forget that they have a lifetime of 20 years, then they come down.
Also not everyone is blessed with great land, so they have to try to make an income, and turbines are as good an income as any.

zetecescort

SoJoMo wrote: »

Imagine the ****e that would go on in this country if they started into building multibillion euro nuclear stations, jesus people really do have short memories.

Imagine if Priory Hall was a Nuclear Power Station. We can't even regulate the movement of money around the economy without it ending in tears.

Allowing nuclear stations in this country would be like giving a baby a loaded gun.
The Japanese are not known for their risk taking and are great safe engineers, and all their so-called safe-guards came to naught.

We have dodgy builders, weak politicians and sleeping regulators = a lethal mix when it comes to nuclear power

at least we wouln't be around to clean up the mess when it all goes bang:D

dzer2

zetecescort wrote: »

at least we wouln't be around to clean up the mess when it all goes bang:D

The way we are it wouldnt go bang it would go plop:(:(

1chippy

dzer2 wrote: »

The way we are it wouldnt go bang it would go plop:(:(

dont worry it will bounce, we used gun o prene and panel adhesive to stick all the buildings together so we should be ok.

whelan1

not good so far

Black Smoke

Don't really understand why we get panicky about a nuclear plant in Ireland.
Today's new technology nuke plants, are extremely safe and efficient compared to the older plants all over Europe.
Right next door in uk, we have sellafield. It handles and reprocesses relatively enormous amounts of nuclear material. That plant is a much bigger threat to us than any new would be plant in Ireland.

Muckit

Darragh was like a walking hot water cylinder this evening with that ridiculous red jacket on him

IrishLad2012

Muckit wrote: »

Darragh was like a walking hot water cylinder this evening with that ridiculous red jacket on him

Us farmers cant afford North Face jackets