agriculture

Flysfisher

Just been listening to the wireless and they on about lifting milk quotas on the first of April next. Now I am not a farmer, and only know a little about this issue. But will this lifting of quotas mean more farmers going into dairy production? Surely it will.
And therefore more cattle, more slurry, more slurry spreading, general decresase in water quality and more pollution?? Bad for rivers and our environment generally? I know that his intensive factory farming is bad for rivers and lakes.
Think this is not good news for anglers and those who care about our rivers.

Zzippy

This government only care about jobs and exports. They don't give a flying **** for the environment. Witness the widespread land "reclamation" going on all over the country, where farmers are incentivised to drain and clear rough land to convert it to grazing, and grow more cattle for dairy and beef exports and keep Simon Coveney's political ambitions on track. Meanwhile environmental agencies are under-resourced and marginalised, it wouldn't do to hinder our agri-business industry now, would it?

Flysfisher

Zzippy wrote: »

This government only care about jobs and exports. They don't give a flying **** for the environment. Witness the widespread land "reclamation" going on all over the country, where farmers are incentivised to drain and clear rough land to convert it to grazing, and grow more cattle for dairy and beef exports and keep Simon Coveney's political ambitions on track. Meanwhile environmental agencies are under-resourced and marginalised, it wouldn't do to hinder our agri-business industry now, would it?

Somehow I think you are probably correct.
Seems the intensive and damaging factory farming is set to intensify further.
Not good for our rivers and loughs, not good for wild fish, not good at all.

twin_beacon

Flysfisher wrote: »

Just been listening to the wireless and they on about lifting milk quotas on the first of April next. Now I am not a farmer, and only know a little about this issue. But will this lifting of quotas mean more farmers going into dairy production? Surely it will.
And therefore more cattle, more slurry, more slurry spreading, general decresase in water quality and more pollution?? Bad for rivers and our environment generally? I know that his intensive factory farming is bad for rivers and lakes.
Think this is not good news for anglers and those who care about our rivers.

I'm an angler, with a background in beef and sheep farming.

It wont result in more farmers getting into dairy, as the cost involved to build the required milking parlour is very high, and not really worth the investment unless its going to be a large scale enterprise, and the farmer already has dairy experience, which most beef farmers do not have. What it will mean, is that current dairy farmers can increase their production to their full potential. As a result, the national dairy heard will increase over time, but to what extent nobody will know for a few years. Either way, the national heard will increase, but its not going to be a huge increase, and will be gradual.

Slurry spreading doesn't directly mean poor water quality, if done incorrectly it has the potential to result in poorer water quality from run off into rivers and lakes. There are many EU regulations about slurry spreading and nitrate allowances. Essentially, farmers cant keep more animals that what the land is capable of supporting.
However, some of them are fundamentally flawed, and result in more run of into rivers and lakes. The ban on slurry spreading between october and janurary needs to be lifted, as you cant "farm by the calender", every year is different. Every year since that law came into place, the dates have had be adjusted, due to poor slurry spreading conditions in the summer. For many years, there has been ideal slurry spreading conditions in October and November, while January has been a wash out. Once January came around, tanks were near capacity, and had to be spread in less than ideal conditions, when there was more run of.

Zzippy wrote: »

This government only care about jobs and exports. They don't give a flying **** for the environment. Witness the widespread land "reclamation" going on all over the country, where farmers are incentivised to drain and clear rough land to convert it to grazing, and grow more cattle for dairy and beef exports and keep Simon Coveney's political ambitions on track. Meanwhile environmental agencies are under-resourced and marginalised, it wouldn't do to hinder our agri-business industry now, would it?

well, farming regulations in Ireland have noting to do with the Irish government, they all come from the EU. I disagree with farmers being incentivised to drain and clear rough land. There are lots of red tape and hoops to jump through before any land reclamation can begin, and if any regulation is broken the farmer is fined. because of this, most farmers don't bother. This summer we started a small bit of reclamation, and had to get the green light from teagasc before we could do anything.

land reclamation is not widespread, in fact, its pretty rare. Unless you have land that will naturally drain, and the water has somewhere to go, the its not possible.