County/Area with least amount of tillage land

Dickie10

was driving through a large tract of co . cavan the other dayand was amazed at the lack of tillage or ploughed tilled land, some of this land looks quite dry and good although a bit hlly but that wouldn't make a difference when you see places like gloucster or Worcestershire in England, just wondering why there wasn't much tillage going on, up the road in meath tillage land starts appearing straight away almost at the border, so land cant be too different, a strange anomaly I thought.

Wgere would they tillage area of this county be? surely there has to be a region to supply grain for meal and feedstuffs to the mills

micraX

Sure they wouldn't know how to plough in Cavan! Haha seriously though I don't know, might be wetter up that way and traditionally not a tillage area, I'm sure there is good ground in some parts though.

reilig

There doesn't have to be an area that supplies to the Mills - most of the grain comes off the boat for the Mills around here and is drawn with lorries and 25 ton trailers.

Leitrim is the county with the least number of tillage farmers - a number of years ago there was only 1. Since then there have been a couple of attempts at wholecrop but there are centainly less than 5 tillage farmers in Leitrim. It's simple really - Drumlin land is not suitable for tillage! the drumlin belt runs from Cavan across leitrim.

kevthegaff

There must be feck all in the west??

Reggie.

reilig wrote: »

There doesn't have to be an area that supplies to the Mills - most of the grain comes off the boat for the Mills around here and is drawn with lorries and 25 ton trailers.

Leitrim is the county with the least number of tillage farmers - a number of years ago there was only 1. Since then there have been a couple of attempts at wholecrop but there are centainly less than 5 tillage farmers in Leitrim. It's simple really - Drumlin land is not suitable for tillage! the drumlin belt runs from Cavan across leitrim.

full of stones hey

Conmaicne Mara

kevthegaff wrote: »

There must be feck all in the west??

We have dairy farmers up the mountains, the tillage lads have yet to get in on the act Best kept secret.

GrandSoftDay

kevthegaff wrote: »

There must be feck all in the west??

A bit in Galway and North Clare but nothing to write home about .

mf240

I don't know anybody with a combine I do however know several with there own turf hopper.

bbam

Dickie10 wrote: »

was driving through a large tract of co . cavan the other dayand was amazed at the lack of tillage or ploughed tilled land, some of this land looks quite dry and good although a bit hlly but that wouldn't make a difference when you see places like gloucster or Worcestershire in England, just wondering why there wasn't much tillage going on, up the road in meath tillage land starts appearing straight away almost at the border, so land cant be too different, a strange anomaly I thought.

Wgere would they tillage area of this county be? surely there has to be a region to supply grain for meal and feedstuffs to the mills

We have about 4 inches of topsoil with mostly blue marl or bog under.
What would that grow tillage wise

As a guy I worked for used to say " you can only piss with the prick your given"

Conmaicne Mara

bbam wrote: »

We have about 4 inches of topsoil with mostly blue marl or bog under.
What would that grow tillage wise

As a guy I worked for used to say " you can only piss with the prick your given"

Would min till work

cristeoir

Used to hear the parents talking about on old fella near us who sowed oats , now his land wasn't great and the oats only grew about 6 inches high , anyway yer man was out with the scythe trying to cut it and all the way through he kept shouting at it " the curse a jaysis on ya that ever grew":D

grazeaway

Used to spend time up west with work a few years ago and one of the lads there asked me to give him a few tips ploughing. Long story short things didn't go well and it took him a week to plough 10acres.

Genghis Cant

grazeaway wrote: »

Long story short things didn't go well and it took him a week to plough 10acres.

Good goin for a horse!

newholland mad

kevthegaff wrote: »

There must be feck all in the west??

Was a sugar factory in tuam so must of been a bit at some stage, it was the first one to close though. In its last few years suicra eireann hauled beet from our farm in carlow to tuam to keep up supplies so the locals must have seen the light and quit tillage at that stage, perhaps they were right:(

Dickie10

4 inchs top soil? would it grow good grass? we live near the bog of allens northerly tip, but within a 1km there is barley,oats,wheat all grown, so does boggy land not harm cereals? or does land change quickly between bogs and normal clay ground, if any of you read ger pottertton in FJ ,im up the road from him and hes always on about the heavy ground around there for tillage.

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...

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Argh damn interweb eating my replies!

Used to wonder at the big fields, tillage and amount of dairy going down south in the lorry with the father when I was little. No tillage round home that I know of anyway.

Nekarsulm

Small bit of tillage up near mountnugent, you are at the Meath border there however. Last time there was much tillage was World War 2. When compulsory tillage was enforced. You can still see traces of this on some hills. . When the sun hits them in a certin way, you can still see the "two ridge lands"
After the war, the day of the horse was over, so any bit of oats that had been grown, was no longer needed ..

munkus

kevthegaff wrote: »

There must be feck all in the west??

Feck ye!!!!!!

Some of the best tillage land is in Galway. I'd say 50% of Galway land is superb stuff. From Athenry to Ballinasloe you wouldn't find a stone.

Rant over :-)

Mad4simmental

South Dublin, most of Kildare, North Kilkenny, and East Laois is full of tillage. Guinness done a very good documentary a few years ago about its factory and the connection with tillage farmers in these areas. It's very good I'll put up the name of it later when I think of it!!

kevthegaff

munkus wrote: »

Feck ye!!!!!!

Some of the best tillage land is in Galway. I'd say 50% of Galway land is superb stuff. From Athenry to Ballinasloe you wouldn't find a stone.

Rant over :-)

Sorry munkus, just always saw lads drawing bales to claire, galway, sligo and mayo and just assumed it!

reilig

Plenty of great tillage land in Galway. Lots of fields being ploughed as we speak. As for soil depth, at home we have some land with only 1 to 1.5 inches of topsoil and then you are into daub or marl. It means that land gets wet very quickly. Poached land takes longer to recover. it grows good grass allright, but it can be a little later than other parts of the country. The only positive thing is that we never suffer from drought. The drier the summer the better.

Some of our best land is bog. Up to 6ft of black mud in places before you reach the marl. It's free draining. It can be travelled upon with the tractor during the wettest time in winter and it grows early grass. We used to grow a lot of fruit and veg for markets when I was younger -potatos, carrots, turnips, strawberries, cabbage plants etc. All on the dry bogland. Again, drought was never an issue! Grandfather used to grown oats in the dry bogland too. Crops were plenty big!

towzer2010

Dickie10 wrote: »

so land cant be too different, a strange anomaly I thought.

Wgere would they tillage area of this county be? surely there has to be a region to supply grain for meal and feedstuffs to the mills

Land quality isn't the only reason. Rainfall is a big consideration as well. The lighter the colour the more tillage I'd say

Conflats

Mad4simmental wrote: »

South Dublin, most of Kildare, North Kilkenny, and East Laois is full of tillage. Guinness done a very good documentary a few years ago about its factory and the connection with tillage farmers in these areas. It's very good I'll put up the name of it later when I think of it!!

Megafactories Guinness national geographic channel from about 2/3 years ago interesting watch it was on youtube

Insp. Harry Callahan

towzer2010 wrote: »

Land quality isn't the only reason. Rainfall is a big consideration as well. The lighter the colour the more tillage I'd say

Plenty of good tillage land here in east Donegal, virtually nothing in the west. Not easy being a grain/ potatoe farmer here though, high rainfall is an issue, harvest is almost always a smash and grab affair!

Mad4simmental

Conflats wrote: »

Megafactories Guinness national geographic channel from about 2/3 years ago interesting watch it was on youtube

Thanks that's the one,

Miname

On the cavan monaghan border here and there used to be a lot of tillage, but nowadays i usually have to travel 10 miles or so. the fields would just be a tad awkwarder than some of the ground in louth meath. I work a fair share of the time in louth and field size would be a major advantage, regularly there would be 50 plus acre fields that would be classified as small, round me its 2 acres thats a small field. maybe im wrong but monaghan, cavan is just full of small roads splitting farms that wouldnt be near as common in other counties, makes it alright if your moving stock but a disaster when alls put together.

Dickie10

So if I were to rank them il try, with help from you guys that know whats going down on the ground, literally; this is by % of land use NOT area. god u would know im a student! #timewaster
1-Wexford
2-Kildare
3-Cork
4-Louth
5-Meath
6-Dublin
7-Carlow
8-Tipp
9-Kilkenny
10-Laois
11-Offaly
12-Waterford
13-Westmeath
14-Down
15Antrim
16-Limerick
17-Galway
18-Donegal
19-Wicklow
20-Armagh
21-Tyrone
22-Dery
23-Rosscommon
24-Longford
25-Kerry
26-Clare
27-Fermanagh
28-Moneghan
29-Cavan
30-Mayo
31-Sligo
32-Leitrim
well what do we think??
21-
22-

GrandSoftDay

Dickie10 wrote: »

So if I were to rank them il try, with help from you guys that know whats going down on the ground, literally; this is by % of land use NOT area. god u would know im a student! #timewaster
1-Wexford
2-Kildare
3-Cork
4-Louth
5-Meath
6-Dublin
7-Carlow
8-Tipp
9-Kilkenny
10-Laois
11-Offaly
12-Waterford
13-Westmeath
14-Down
15Antrim
16-Limerick
17-Galway
18-Donegal
19-Wicklow
20-Armagh
21-Tyrone
22-Dery
23-Rosscommon
24-Longford
25-Kerry
26-Clare
27-Fermanagh
28-Moneghan
29-Cavan
30-Mayo
31-Sligo
32-Leitrim
well what do we think??
21-
22-

I'd doubt cork is 3rd, a lot of not so good land in west cork!!

george_w_brush

Mad4simmental wrote: »

South Dublin, most of Kildare, North Kilkenny, and East Laois is full of tillage. Guinness done a very good documentary a few years ago about its factory and the connection with tillage farmers in these areas. It's very good I'll put up the name of it later when I think of it!!

I think you might mean north Dublin which btw has IMO the best land in all of Ireland , most of the land in south Dublin is actually quite average , you know , the south Dublin Wicklow border etc is mostly hilly , what land is left in south west Dublin beside the Kildare border is most likely good but the prime tillage land in county Dublin is most certainly in places like swords , naul , balbriggan , garristown , which are all in north Dublin

george_w_brush

Insp. Harry Callahan wrote: »

Plenty of good tillage land here in east Donegal, virtually nothing in the west. Not easy being a grain/ potatoe farmer here though, high rainfall is an issue, harvest is almost always a smash and grab affair!

east Donegal is known for its terrific land

ive relatives in meath myself and they claim that while the county does have large tracts of great land , that its reputation of having the best land in Ireland is completely overdone , any number of other counties have just as good of land , meath was the county down the centuries where a large percentage of the landed gentry and large anglo irish estates were situated and out of this grew the reputation for unrivalled land which endures to this day

george_w_brush

Dickie10 wrote: »

So if I were to rank them il try, with help from you guys that know whats going down on the ground, literally; this is by % of land use NOT area. god u would know im a student! #timewaster
1-Wexford
2-Kildare
3-Cork
4-Louth
5-Meath
6-Dublin
7-Carlow
8-Tipp
9-Kilkenny
10-Laois
11-Offaly
12-Waterford
13-Westmeath
14-Down
15Antrim
16-Limerick
17-Galway
18-Donegal
19-Wicklow
20-Armagh
21-Tyrone
22-Dery
23-Rosscommon
24-Longford
25-Kerry
26-Clare
27-Fermanagh
28-Moneghan
29-Cavan
30-Mayo
31-Sligo
32-Leitrim
well what do we think??
21-
22-

Armagh should be above galway , loads of good land in Armagh where as the bulk of land in galway is poor quality ( though it is a large county )

Mad4simmental

george_w_brush wrote: »

I think you might mean north Dublin which btw has IMO the best land in all of Ireland , most of the land in south Dublin is actually quite average , you know , the south Dublin Wicklow border etc is mostly hilly , what land is left in south west Dublin beside the Kildare border is most likely good but the prime tillage land in county Dublin is most certainly in places like swords , naul , balbriggan , garristown , which are all in north Dublin

Yep your dead right north Dublin not south,

I said

george_w_brush wrote: »

Armagh should be above galway , loads of good land in Armagh where as the bulk of land in galway is poor quality ( though it is a large county )

Plenty of good land around east galway and was it last year it sold the highest number of combines according to journal.correct me if im wrong

reilig

towzer2010 wrote: »

Land quality isn't the only reason. Rainfall is a big consideration as well. The lighter the colour the more tillage I'd say

Reason for the high rainfall in those regions shown on the map is the mountains. Double whammy as to why there is low amounts of tillage - soil quality in mountain regions and rainfall.

Dickie10

any reason for east Donegal having good land or is it lower rainfall? would the reason being its on the leeward side of the bluestack mts do it? and does being on the leeward side of mountains back much difference in Ireland? I know south co Dublin seems to have a micro climate in areas like dunlaoighre, mount merrion, stillorgan and sandyforde or maybe its just all the perfectly manicured gardens that make it look like that!

bbam

Dickie10 wrote: »

any reason for east Donegal having good land or is it lower rainfall? would the reason being its on the leeward side of the bluestack mts do it? and does being on the leeward side of mountains back much difference in Ireland? I know south co Dublin seems to have a micro climate in areas like dunlaoighre, mount merrion, stillorgan and sandyforde or maybe its just all the perfectly manicured gardens that make it look like that!

I know south co Dublin seems to have a micro climate in areas like dunlaoighre, mount merrion, stillorgan and sandyforde or maybe its just all the perfectly manicured gardens MONEY that makes it look like that!

eeeee

bbam wrote: »

I know south co Dublin seems to have a micro climate in areas like dunlaoighre, mount merrion, stillorgan and sandyforde or maybe its just all the perfectly manicured gardens MONEY that makes it look like that!

They buy said climate. I've seen them at it

cute geoge

With Kerry low down on the list and probably rightly so , I wonder could we start a tread on the best farmers in Ireland with land size and quality examples .Some mighty dairy operators down here with small acres

Dickie10

just resurrected this corpse of a thread, as i have a bit more experience farming now. I went on a day trip over lockdown a few week back again over near mountugent towards kilnaleck in cavan , i remember thats what started this thread a few years ago, yes this area has to be surely the best land in cavan ,the image i have of farms in cavan was definitly not on show in this area, its as good a land as you would see in ireland, looks like anything pulled from the best of Meath or Kildare, actually reminded me of good Offaly and Laois type area. plus the farmsteads are very well kept. worth a drive anyone in the area.

Hard Knocks

Dickie10 wrote: »

just resurrected this corpse of a thread, as i have a bit more experience farming now. I went on a day trip over lockdown a few week back again over near mountugent towards kilnaleck in cavan , i remember thats what started this thread a few years ago, yes this area has to be surely the best land in cavan ,the image i have of farms in cavan was definitly not on show in this area, its as good a land as you would see in ireland, looks like anything pulled from the best of Meath or Kildare, actually reminded me of good Offaly and Laois type area. plus the farmsteads are very well kept. worth a drive anyone in the area.

On the Kilnaleck to Oldcastle trip it’s hard to know the border

amadangomor

Hard Knocks wrote: »

On the Kilnaleck to Oldcastle trip it’s hard to know the border

Once you go further East and directly North from there it is still decent land but gets too hilly for modern tillage. Good for dairying though.

Was probably handy enough land for small farmers in the past as in wet times the hilltops would drain readily and in dry periods the bottoms of the hills would stay damp for longer.

West Cavan is a different beast. As soon as you head West of Cavan town it is very rushy and rough country, like Leitrim's identical twin.

ruwithme

If you attempted to have a go at tillage in cavan, even on this best of land, the neighbours would be saying prayers for it to fail (suppose we have a fair idea of our limitations)

lalababa

Aren't tillage farmers losing money??

_Brian

Dickie10 wrote: »

was driving through a large tract of co . cavan the other dayand was amazed at the lack of tillage or ploughed tilled land, some of this land looks quite dry and good although a bit hlly but that wouldn't make a difference when you see places like gloucster or Worcestershire in England, just wondering why there wasn't much tillage going on, up the road in meath tillage land starts appearing straight away almost at the border, so land cant be too different, a strange anomaly I thought.

Wgere would they tillage area of this county be? surely there has to be a region to supply grain for meal and feedstuffs to the mills

Shallow variable soils would be a serious problem round these parts.

Drumlins are the spoil ejected from glaciers as they pass, dropping a mix of stuff collected over a wide area which basically means from field to field the soils and conditions vary considerably.

Yes there are some decent tracts of land but when you scratch the surface it can be a bit messy.

Panch18

lalababa wrote: »

Aren't tillage farmers losing money??

Good tillage farmers are making as much money as anyone - and a better lifestyle than most

20silkcut

reilig wrote: »

There doesn't have to be an area that supplies to the Mills - most of the grain comes off the boat for the Mills around here and is drawn with lorries and 25 ton trailers.

Leitrim is the county with the least number of tillage farmers - a number of years ago there was only 1. Since then there have been a couple of attempts at wholecrop but there are centainly less than 5 tillage farmers in Leitrim. It's simple really - Drumlin land is not suitable for tillage! the drumlin belt runs from Cavan across leitrim.

I’d say you’d grow some stuff in the troughs of those drumlins.

Lady Haywire

20silkcut wrote: »

I’d say you’d grow some stuff in the troughs of those drumlins.

We have both meadow & pasture in the flats below the hill. I think in history Lord Leitrim portioned out those 'trough' areas to the tenants on the drumlins so they had places to make hay as the hillsides were to steep to build the stacks on. So there was pasture on the hills & meadows on the flats.

Meadows are grand on it, but very wet, so you need to keep drains up to date, that's the drier side of the hill too. On the opposite side of the drumlin we have switched it to pasture as the way down was just too steep for it to be safe carting bales & machinery up & down.
The soil itself is dark, almost pre-bog type but inclined to hold water, even with a tributary river flowing through at the bottom of it. The neighbour with the flat across the river from us uses his as meadow but only gets it all cut 2 out of 3 years. This year he had to leave a chunk in the middle of one meadow & at that he even marked the edges.
It was great land all through the drought in '18 but the grass died off in areas where there's massive rocks just under the ground so you'd want to clear them all out if going at tillage. As it is I strike a few of them with the topper as they stick up :pac:

Like heres the side we use as meadow but as you can see, we get lucky as the river floods onto the lower land the other side of the river. This was a couple of years back, we tend to stick dry cows or bulls out there to eat off the grass before they go into the shed.

forgottenhills

There used to be tillage on every sizable farm in Drumlin areas like Cavan up to about 70 years ago except in the mountainy areas in the west of the county. Every large scale farmer grew their own potatoes, barley and oats, even some wheat. Flax was also a big money crop in the early part of the 20th century. However all that was in the era of horse-powered farming and a little later in the era of the small tractor and binder.

But once the era of the large machines and combine harvesters came in most of the land there just couldn't cope with heavy machinery because of the heavy clay types combined with the fact that almost all fields are hilly, many being very hilly indeed. Going forward farmers sensibly switched totally to something that was more suited to the land such as dairying or beef systems. The best fields (the few drier and flatter ones) are typically the ones cut for silage. It is hard for farmers from areas like Wexford to believe but after only one days rain you could see ruts after a tractor passes over a field in the Drumlins. Also it is a challenge to drive a tractor and pull something heavy without sliding across a wet slopy field, you don't have that challenge in most of Wexford or Kildare! So very little tillage left in the Drumlins region even though many of the flatter fields and valley areas have good depths of decent clay, its just of a type that never drains quickly. Many of the hilly fields have only a few inches of clay before you hit some horrible grey/beige stuff underneath, used to hear it called "leac liath".

Say my name

Has there been ground in leitrim touched and levelled with Hymacs and dumpers?

You'd imagine if there was a bit of work done you'd make land.

I know economics, sac's and climate.

But I'd say mixing the gravel and black clay and possibly that grey whack could make something.
Or is this yella belly too naive on this?

orchard farm

Few lads tried plowing liming and reseeding round here and made a bad situation alot worse,okay for sheep but thats about it