what are you doing to prepare your farm for climate change?

epicmoe

Its coming - so we're told.

What have you done so far and what do you plan to do to prepare your farm?

Say my name

Increasing the carbon/OM content of the soil to make it more drought resistant..hopefully.

What have you done or are planning to do yourself @epicmoe ?

Birdnuts

Hoping for a drier, warmer climate myself - though I may be biased (North Mayo!!)

Danzy

I'm 8ncreasibg organic matter in a third of it, via organic practice.

Put in a good few hedgerows and poplar belts to provide shade.

Though whether they are done because of climate change or I'm sticking them onto this thread is debatable

wrangler

Looking at all teh planes crossing here this morning, I've decided to loook after the environment when every one else does.

Heavy land here so a little drought wouldnt do any harm

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120378#Comment_119120378

A) that wasn't the question

B) Thats a real mature attitude you've got right there.

C) dry clay is worse than moist clay!

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119119490#Comment_119119490

How exactly are you doing that?

This was exactly the kind of answers I'm looking for.

Personally I'm aiming to diversify - we have already planted 3/4 of our land with A wide variety of native broadleaf forestry to provide shade and and a buffer for any extreme weather patterns. In our grant we have written that we can run enterprises underneath the forestry as soon as it is established, as it is for "continuous cover" not clear felling harvest.

Hoping to put in some more ponds as well for water capture and storage.

Other than that I haven't much of an idea what to do, but definitely needs to be a priority I think.

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119119824#Comment_119119824

What practices in particular? Regenerative grazing management? Or spreading organic matter? or something else?

patsy_mccabe

Are you asking what are we doing to alleviate climate change OR what are we doing to prepare for the changes when they come?

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120498#Comment_119120498

to prepare for climate change as it comes. Whatever we can do to alleviate climate change should also be done, be we are too far on now to be able to get away from it altogether, so I'm curious as to what actions I can take to prepare mu farm to face the effects of climate change over the coming years.

Bass Reeves

I have build a large shed and filled it with fertlizer last year so that the rules will not effect me for my lifetime ( around 60 years of age). I intend cutting all hedges to the bone this autumn and every Autumn from now on until they stop me, then I will have 2-3 years before I have a hedge problem.

I have put in a large oil storage tank filled it two years ago when the price was cheap. I have sprayed every weed in the fields and on the ditches. I stockpiled weed killer 5+ years ago and now buy a yearly allowance.

I have a big tractor and a slurry tanker. The tractor has an infra red system for night time spreading of slurry and fertlizer. It has extra wide tyres to get into wet areas and near drains and rivers. I have a mulcher for hedge cutting. It will shatter everything even stone.

I say I am ready for any regulations

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120442#Comment_119120442

The way they're targetting agriculture and not targetting planes, the way kids are being driven here there and yonder and that's only a few examples but it shows that the NIMBY attitude to the climate change is strong. So why bother, I think it's pathetic and just our government pandering to europe. You asked what I'm doing about climate change, I told you I was doing nothing and why

A woman stopped `last friday to criticise me for spraying the bank on the side of the road , I asked WTF was she doing driving her car when the local link bus collected everyone at their door every Friday.

Once you get on the local linkaround here you can eventually go to Dublin Cork, Galway etc right from from your door. WTF was this woman doing driving a car if she thought she could lecture about the evironment

patsy_mccabe

I'm mindful of more extreme wet and dry spells, so I'm keeping more Silage than normal. Better to be looking at it than looking for it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058247577/what-are-you-doing-to-prepare-your-farm-for-climate-change

I'm not doing one single thing in regards to climate change as a primary motivator.

However, I am doing a lot of things to move away from chemical/conventional/green revolution agriculture which will have a primary aim of increasing and diversifying my income, and have positive nature benefits as a by product. I also intend to grow my own trees from local seed and cuttings as much as possible to create micro climates on this exposed farm to grow more and better pasture, lower the energy requirements of stock and give health and biodiversity benefits, again as by products.

What I have actually completed so far is mostly education & planning. As well as no longer buying fertiliser or pour on's. Slow progress but I keep moving forward which is the important thing, perfect being the enemy of done.

Donald Trump

No offence OP, I might be wrong but I get the impression that you might be a person who "farms" as a hobby rather than to produce for sale.

It isn't viable for people to plant three-quarters of their farms with trees if they are actually trying to produce food for supply. It is different if it is only an expensive hobby and people want to grow a few things for themselves.

The importance of food supply is going to become a lot more pronounced over the next few years on a global basis

JohnChadwick

Agree, the consequences of this in future years will be prevalent.

Like anything, you'll have the early adopters who see it coming and act, then the ones who will be forced to change due to govt legislation/market conditions and will muddle on through but remaining less in control of things. Then the stragglers at the end that adapt too late and will be killed off.

It's all those things mentioned above to prepare i.e. More shelter, drought resilient grasses, outwinterable animals etc. Silage and slurry the only occasions a tractor drives into a field.

blue5000

I'm producing less. Hopefully the world population will fall to around 1b from 8b and the problem will solve itself.

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121001#Comment_119121001

To be fair maybe they are apple trees which would provide food or maybe even orange or banana trees in anticipation of global warming.

They may be going to graze pigs underneath when they establish as shade and sell organic pork. They mentioned the trees being cover for another enterprise.

Alternatively they may be somebody not overly interested in doing much farming and would have planted regardless of climate change.

I myself am going to do whatever is most profitable (loses me least money) come what may without planning 75% of my land.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120489#Comment_119120489

Regenerative grazing management via mob grazing.

Means that there is Always a Bank of grass as well and I find it helps keep them out later as well.

alps

I'm arranging a second bank account so as to be able to cope with the lodgements..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120451#Comment_119120451

Can I ask about the grant, what is it? I'm not interested in the money, just when I went to an open day regarding the native woodland scheme they were adamant there'd be no farming in the woodland after the grant had stopped paying out.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121180#Comment_119121180

When you look at where the global population has exploded in the last 70 years, it is in places where agriculture was always up against it.

Farmers in places like India, the paddy fields of Asia, thrown out Fertilizer at rates that we couldn't imagine and that would poison the ground here.

Their high rainfall and soils loose all nutrients quickly.

Improved crops, better management practices all helped but for about 2 bn people in Africa and Asia its down to shocking abuse of Fertilizer.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121180#Comment_119121180

I was listening to a YT recording of Tom Stack last night, his father told him something I'd fully agree with. It was in the context of how stressed out he was getting being in the expansion mindset and it not tallying with his own gut feeling of how farming and caring for the land ought to be. Won't quote exactly because I'll get it wrong but it roughly went along the lines of "Your job is to feed your family, not the world".

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121284#Comment_119121284

There's people who can handle the stress of expansion, they seem to be made different. That's where all our employment comes from, people who have foresight and not afraid of hard work/long hours.

Most are same as myself, they'll evolve as climate change evolves.

It is not always the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121284#Comment_119121284

Nearly like what Wrangler has posted it can be taken too far the other way. This mantra of I'm not here to feed the world looked well five years ago but it's looking a bit selfish and an ill thought out statement now with famine looming.

There's a happy medium of farming for humus/ carbon production with less use of herbicides, pesticides, anthelmintics. Food is medicine. Isn't it better someone is eating your food produced that way than leaving food production to someone else far down the too much route.

That'd be my thinking now. Best of both. We are still paid on volume. Always will be. You have to keep both eyes on all aspects. Otherwise you'll need an off farm job and then your mindset changes dramatically.

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120451#Comment_119120451

and reducing food output from your farm is not bothering your concience.

James2022

A lot of posters are are mistaking what "preparing for climate change" means. It's not changing your operation to reduce your impact on climate change bu what you are doing to deal with the weather changes that come with it.

Since the blizzard and drought I've started preparing more for changing weather. Those were extremes(for Ireland) but the summers are getting hotter every year. We had 3 heat waves last year and this year has already had a bunch of hot days where cattle were slightly uncomfortable. Only going to get hotter in June-August

To deal with this I'm adding in bigger water troughs. Upgrading the well and sinking pipes across the farm to split every field into suitable paddocks.

Fly-Pour on 3 times over the summer. Something I already do but insects are exploding in numbers in my area.

Shaving backs at Winter and using lime 3-4 times on their backs. Keeps animals cooler and reduces outbreaks of lice during warm Winter weather.

Making sure every paddock has suitable shelter. I have lots of tress and thick hedgerow across my farm. It's one of the biggest nuisances on the farm because of the work and trouble it causes but when there is a hot day animals need shelter. At a Teagasc Open Day they said "Trees and hedges have no place on a farm" and went as far as to laugh at anyone who tried to make an argument. The animals must have been miserable on their farm during the drought or any heat wave since.

I've also started moving towards shorter haired breeds. Someone once told me Salers were the breed of the future because of the thick hair for our cold climate but unless you are out wintering animals need to be more conditioned for our growing warmer climate.

Going to invest in solar panels to supply the farmyard's electricity.

I have water tanks setup under the gutters of most buildings. One I used for power washing and adding water to slurry tanks, the other for drinking water in the cow shed.

With increased growth rates for grass in recent years it's also come with the problem of increased ivy and briars. My whole county is being destroyed by them, nearly every tree is covered in ivy on my farm. Not sure what to do, can't take up a full time job trimming ivy all day.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121619#Comment_119121619

Thanks but I'll take advice from the lad who was spending €1200 to dry off cows and is now spending €3.80 to do the same job. Profit is sanity, turnover is vanity. The production mindset is what has farming in the position it's in, shouting and squealing at any pothole in the road due to so many with Fr. Ted accounts due to the input prices.Regular fodder crisis and harping on about most everything.

The same as yourself, it's good this week 😄

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121841#Comment_119121841

You're paid on what you sell and how you decide to sell it. If that's volume to a coop then that's your choice. There are other choices. I'm surprised at you coming out with that. I don't see anything selfish about the statement. One side of the coin farmers are saying we're so small our emissions etc. don't make a difference, next thing we're saving the world from famine 🤷‍♂️ No one said no production.

dh1985

Has the weather gotten that much hotter to date. Few good weeks the last few years but its been the same way for as long as I can remember. In fact I would have thought summers were better years ago, more settled less rain. Might not have been as effected by drought as people seemed to be stocked lighter back then. Maybe I am wrong but would have thought the bigger change has come on the winter side of things with more rain and milder conditions.

As for the shelter whilst I would be a big advocate for good hedges and good trees ,more from an aesthetics perspective than anything, I would also have fields split into paddocks with some having minimal or no shelter. Animals were as happy in these the past few years basking in the sunshine and were definitely well removed from been miserable.

Say my name

I've seen it back in conferences in Ireland years ago here where the cool line was "I've no obligation to feed the world". That in itself leads to thinking producing for outside of your farm must be bad.

It was lazy thinking brought by farmers with maybe not even 10 acres and outside employment or the other extreme those with hundreds of acres and relying on the bps and letting the farm go wild.

It was lazy thinking then and it is even worse lazy thinking now. Only for our minister was sent to Dubai to see what actual food exports mean to the country and how we're perceived abroad, Pippa would have steam rolled all over him.

Imagine back in famine times in Ireland a group of starving people looking for food. They come to the finest of a farm in meath. Hundreds of acres. The best of land looking for food. The farmer rocks up and tells them "Ye can phuck off. There's no food being produced here. I'm not feeding the world. I'm only feeding myself."

The very same scenario is playing out today except that group is just not on our doorstep.

It's an extremely ignorant way. And people want to be rewarded monetarily for that way. No. Cut back your inputs, farm smartly, but keep your output up. There was talk on this forum of organic producers getting 500 gallons a cow. That's worse than 80 years ago. There's organic producers in the UK doing 2000 gallons simple.

But, but. Take everything with a pinch of salt. That's an unbelievable figure you quoted above for dry off. And so is the opposite figure. Give six years to get a true picture. I dropped antibiotics one year. Would I do it again? No. I learned my lesson the hard way. It's simple if you're not in the middle of it.

I heard a spiel from an organic farmer once. Turns out they buy fert under the counter and spray glyphosate for weeds. But to all else. Oh yea they do it for the environment.

There's a lot of jiggery pokery in this world. You just have to know exactly who you're talking to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119123469#Comment_119123469

You're taking one comment and turning it into rewilding and the green party basically, covid has gone to your head.

The man is producing, and selling his produce differently, he's happier and more profitable yet there's criticism of him.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119123540#Comment_119123540

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/hope-is-not-a-strategy-when-it-comes-to-our-most-basic-need-food-684061#:~:text=When%20speaking%20on%20the%20climate,need%20Ireland%20to%20feed%20it%E2%80%9D

I'm not criticising the individual. Bar it's a loaned statement from someone else.

And pippa loaned it from the conferences she was at before that.

Show me what I posted where it's untrue.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119123616#Comment_119123616

You're barking up the wrong tree with this. I couldn't give a fiddlers **** what hatchet has to say on anything. If you have a bone to pick with her, have at it. I'm not her.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119123667#Comment_119123667

You can't say that's not the first time you've heard that sentiment in Ireland.

I merely pointed out it's progression on lips. I called it lazy as it's not original. It wasn't original 5 years ago. And it certainly didn't age well.

I'll even stick my neck out that the very first biofarm conference here it was an edgy statement then.

You do look a bit like Pippa though..

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058247577/what-are-you-doing-to-prepare-your-farm-for-climate-change

Nothing the whole climate change crisis is a farce, it’s all about taxation and wealth transfer if you can’t see that by now there’s no hope for you. Have you noticed that the globalists pushing it don’t want solutions just extra tax.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119123744#Comment_119123744

What's with the you can't say...? I mean, I agree with the statement, that a farmer's job is not to feed the world. Fully. I'm not bothered about where it originated, as that doesn't influence my thinking. It's a collection of words arranged in a particular order. What motivates me as regards the statement is how many, it's been called employment, I call them parasites, that hang off farmers based on an unhealthy productivity mantra. You earn money, through production or CAP or wherever comes in and there's various interests out there, not all commercial, who's aim it is is for you to keep as little of that as possible. What confuses me, but I had my suspicions and I think you've confirmed them above, is why something, a statement, that's entirely down to the individual, riles you so much when it need not apply to you precisely because it's such an individual choice.

She'll take that as a compliment, I'm very handsome.

Birdnuts

In fairness to the OP he asked a simple question about how folks will prepare for the droughts or cold spells of the future. It doesn't reflect well on farming boards some of the stupid and irrelevant stuff he got back. As for climate change itself, i see Ireland as being less affected then most places. Sheer luck of geography and soil type. In contrast places like Brazil are going to be in big trouble at the rate their climate is drying out and getting hotter due to the rampant destruction of the Amazon and other habitats thanx to that nasty thug Bolsanario. Massive loss of topsoil there too. As for feeding the world, realistically we are small players in that regard, even more so given the sorry state of tillage and veg production in the country. Most famines in any case are down to wars or logistics. The Ukraine situation is an issue, not due to production, but getting the product out of the country. The breakdown of logistics around the world since Covid is also a big factor in current food inflation. Add the massive amount of food waste across the board at every stage up to the consumer and beyond, then its obvious that the situation is alot more complicated than simply flogging the land to death with chemicals etc, to produce that bit more. Our own experience of famine should have taught us that, since it was a brutal colonial land regime that caused it, while at the same time we continued to export vast amounts of grains and cattle.

ForestFire

I have been training and practicing with my heard 3 days a week now for the last year.

I feel the earlier you start to prepare and the more practice they get in the easier the change will be in the long run.....

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P.S. I'm not even a farmer and that's now a real cow!! (But I guess you know the last bit)

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120750#Comment_119120750

You would have got a "Farmer of the Year" reward from Teagasc for that not so long ago🤣

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121001#Comment_119121001

Haha if only I could afford such a hobby.

no it is my business. Veg mostly - we used to have pigs and sheep, but had to pull those until the forestry gets established, then chickens, then sheep and eventually pigs will be able to go back under the canopy in a few years time.

Farming in forestry can actually be more productive, if managed correctly - I had to seee it done before I was convinced because we rely on the farm as our only source of income.

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119121237#Comment_119121237

most grants are like this yes.

We "shopped around" for a forester who would basically write our application and plan to how we wanted it, instead of just what was easiest for the forester.

Most foresters just want to copy and paste their last plan (spray round up everywhere, get the digger in, bang it all into sitka spruce for clear felling), collect their cheque and move on.

We still had to make some concessions, but the main advantage is that the forestry is in "continuous cover" ie, fell the trees here and there, and let the forestry naturally regenerate, so all of the area is always covered in forestry rather than clear fell the whole lot, and then replant. This is what ultimately helped us be able to write in that we can run enterprises underneath the forestry.

As to the money - you get slightly more for the way we did it, although only for the same amount of time and as it will be much longer until we get a timber crop (all broadleaf) it is kind of a trade off.

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119122295#Comment_119122295

our output will be reduced for a few years for sure, I took an off farm job while the forestry was establishing itself - now its ready for chickens, I'll be putting layers in one section and broilers in another. Eventually we can raise sheep, pigs and cattle under the canopy also. we have been looking into commercial mushroom production in forestry as well. It will be as productive as when it was fields - with the added benefit of timber harvests, shade for the animals.

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119124955#Comment_119124955

Will you be able to operate livestock at a level that you can keep the soil covered with a foliage at all times?

tabby aspreme

How long is the forest established OP

greenfield21

I know its out of season but can you still remove hedges now?? My understanding is that if you plant same length before you remove it then you should have no issues...or is there more to it than that? Department approval?

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119125003#Comment_119125003

That remains to be seen.

it's an experiment - judging by others that have done similar things - it is possible. However every area has different climate and different soils etc , so it will be an experiment here. Sheep might not be able to be a year round enterprise here. Broilers are only run in season too.That just leaves the layers and the pigs on the land year round, which "should" be fine.

epicmoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119126472#Comment_119126472

As far as I am aware it is illegal to cut hedges during nesting season.

It is allowed to fell trees where they are an immediate danger, or trim hedges where they pose a genuine risk for traffic.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119126472#Comment_119126472

Not in the middle of the nesting season

greenfield21

Sorry I was thinking just generally. Obviously it would have to be outside nesting season but more is it allowed now to do it and what are the rules...

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119128214#Comment_119128214

The following link give some insight -

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/bb591e-statement-on-illegal-removal-of-hedgerows/

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119125173#Comment_119125173

As you say we're used to the vagaries of climate

We definitely shouldn't be spending money on changes, The goings on at Dublin Airport should tell us that the public isn't gonna buy into any changes.

There could be absolutely nothing done about it....... apart from extra taxes that is