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Irish Beef vs Mercosor Beef

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    #62
    realitykeeper
    Registered Users Posts: 4,138 ✭✭✭realitykeeper


    rocksolidfat wrote: »
    Holy christ that lad's posting history is a treasure trove, I must be losing my marbles because it seems the Magdalene Laundries were also a good thing, if they came back women would need them, and well... they're better than the hell all these women are going to anyway, so that's got to be a positive.

    I sh*t ye not!

    Quotes from different threads are inadmissible and are therefore verboten. I shall report you for that and thank you not to blaspheme again.


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    #63
    realitykeeper
    Registered Users Posts: 4,138 ✭✭✭realitykeeper


    gozunda wrote: »
    Hold up lads. Realitykeeper (sic) is obviously the boards resident agricultural expert. Not only does he know more than all the kids in the department of agriculture and Teagasc with regards to production and farming - he knows more than any other farmer in the country as well!

    So the future is:

    * High input hot house horticultural production involving huge amounts of energy, artificial fertilisers and pesticides

    *Forestry wherever there isnt intensive covered production.

    * Cheap and nasty higly procesed fake 'meat'

    Yup sounds just the kind of thing we need for sure ...

    :cool:

    I would be surprised if farmers still think they were well advised by the Dept and by Teagasc.

    I suspect you would have a higher regard to authority than would I.
    The experts who ran our financial institutions and brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy should have made an impression on us all.

    I would advise farmers to think for yourselves.

    Final point, hard work is not just physical. It includes things like diligence research and planning. As for physical labour, I promise you will feel much better for it. Hard work is nothing to be afraid of. It really isn`t.


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    #64
    gozunda
    Registered Users Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    realitykeeper wrote: »
    I would be surprised if farmers still think they were well advised by the Dept and by Teagasc.

    I suspect you would have a higher regard to authority than would I.
    The experts who ran our financial institutions and brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy should have made an impression on us all.

    I would advise farmers to think for yourselves.

    Final point, hard work is not just physical. It includes things like diligence research and planning. As for physical labour, I promise you will feel much better for it. Hard work is nothing to be afraid of. It really isn`t.

    Lol. You teach your grandmother how to to suck eggs as well?

    Ps. I have a spare shovel for you whenever you are ready to put your money where your mouth is and get digging.


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    #65
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,262 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    realitykeeper wrote: »

    Final point, hard work is not just physical. It includes things like diligence research and planning. As for physical labour, I promise you will feel much better for it. Hard work is nothing to be afraid of. It really isn`t.

    Lol.

    You surely must be trolling.


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    #66
    realitykeeper
    Registered Users Posts: 4,138 ✭✭✭realitykeeper


    gozunda wrote: »
    Lol. You teach your grandmother how to to suck eggs as well?

    Ps. I have a spare shovel for you whenever you are ready to put your money where your mouth is and get digging.

    It`s a big country, and I have a spare shovel too.


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    #67
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,262 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    realitykeeper wrote: »
    It`s a big country, and I have a spare shovel too.

    In good condition and not a callus on the hand.


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    #68
    markodaly
    Registered Users Posts: 13,952 ✭✭✭✭markodaly


    eeeee wrote: »
    Rural Ireland is dying in vast swathes of the country, and the beef crisis is part of it.

    Doesn't that point to real systemic issues with lots of framing in Ireland?
    Its dying because the old model is outdated and has only lasted this long becomes of large subsidies.

    I suppose we need a rethink of what we are going to do with rural Ireland.
    Do we need to farm every single acre of it?

    RTE have an interesting article about the future of foresty.
    https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/0917/1076425-ireland-forestry-22-million-trees-a-year/

    Not a fan of the non-native spruce myself, but we should definitely try and reforest whole swathes of the countryside with native indigenous trees, return the countryside back to its natural habitat, which we have very little off.
    The best land we can still use for dairy/beef/whatever is still viable, but there are lots of acres out there that is not worth saving or planting.


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    #69
    Outlaw Pete
    Registered Users Posts: 10,423 ✭✭✭✭Outlaw Pete


    jam_mac_jam wrote: »
    I would prefer Irish beef to ****ty beef full of hormones from third world countries when I live up the road from some of the best beef in the world. I would gladly pay for the better quality. You can keep your crappy thai chicken as well.

    I agree but Ireland needs to try and ensure that better quality remains a priority, as for sure there are some that let the side down in that regard, and I'm not blaming farmers necessarily or at least not all of them, as I get there is temptation there to produce a lower quality product when you're struggling to keep things afloat.

    It's something I think we're uncomfortable talking about as a society as the quality of Irish beef, with images of Irish cows in the greenest of pastures is right up there with the Cliffs of Moher as a Bord Failte selling point.

    I've noticed though, that Irish beef in certain supermarkets tends to be consistently very poor quality. Even high price cuts of beef will often be anemic looking, grey marbling and tough to eat. Super Valu is always excellent and so supermarkets-wise, I tend to stick with them, but if I can at all, I'll buy from butchers I know always have very good beef.

    I seem to recall this being raised in the dail a few years ago, not sure by whom, but they were trying to raise awareness about how some farmers were damaging the reputation of Irish beef by doing whatever it is that they were doing. Again, understand the temptation to do whatever it takes to make sure you're turning a profit but personally I don't mind paying that extra but to ensure the beef is as good a quality as it can be, and indeed often do.


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    #70
    eeeee
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 6,821 Mod ✭✭✭✭eeeee


    markodaly wrote: »
    Doesn't that point to real systemic issues with lots of framing in Ireland?
    Its dying because the old model is outdated and has only lasted this long becomes of large subsidies.

    I suppose we need a rethink of what we are going to do with rural Ireland.
    Do we need to farm every single acre of it?

    RTE have an interesting article about the future of foresty.
    https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/0917/1076425-ireland-forestry-22-million-trees-a-year/

    Not a fan of the non-native spruce myself, but we should definitely try and reforest whole swathes of the countryside with native indigenous trees, return the countryside back to its natural habitat, which we have very little off.
    The best land we can still use for dairy/beef/whatever is still viable, but there are lots of acres out there that is not worth saving or planting.

    I think we really need to think about what makes land valuable - is it just productivity? Or is it natural beauty, culture, social history, archeological and environmental value etc.
    Saying we plant all marginal land is a huge, huge, huge mistake. There is so much local and social history bound up in land, so much culture. We have 20 acres we can't farm at home, it's full of native shrubs, bushes, trees etc. The biodiversity there is unreal. We have an awful lot of ditches and old pasture too, that once ripped up for forestry or reseeded is irreplaceable. Famine houses, full fiachras, a famine road, a few fairyforts (in fairness they're everywhere!) There is fcuk all of that kind of diversity in the golden vale.
    The only reason we've been able to keep the history and biodiversity on our farm is beef farming. Lose that and you lose so, so much with it.
    I also see my father, who was born and reared on that land, and his father was a tenant on it before he got it off the land commission, knows where all the shores and drains are/should be, so when the council resurface the road he goes around telling them what to not block etc. When the don't listen roads flood, get torn up because of blocked shores etc.
    Once you plant land there's no going back. Without significant investment in it its destroyed for any other use.
    I have absolutely no appetite for more monocultural sika spruce plantations.

    Land is more than just a carbon sink, and needs to be understood for what it is in its entirety.


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    #71
    markodaly
    Registered Users Posts: 13,952 ✭✭✭✭markodaly


    eeeee wrote: »
    I think we really need to think about what makes land valuable - is it just productivity? Or is it natural beauty, culture, social history, archeological and environmental value etc.

    I think we can agree on the subjective at least.
    Land should not all be about productivity, so why are we subsidising farms that are and will never be either self-sustaining or profitable?
    Saying we plant all marginal land is a huge, huge, huge mistake.

    Not really saying all, but there is a case to be made to return, lots of unproductive, marginal land back to its natural Irish woodland type habitat.


    Once you plant land there's no going back. Without significant investment in it its destroyed for any other use.

    I think that is the point of it really, besides recreational perhaps. One could develop natural woodlands, bordering a greenway, with some walks, that communities can enjoy.

    As you said, why does it have to be productive as in has to be farmed?
    I have absolutely no appetite for more monocultural sika spruce plantations.

    I tend to agree. I would rather create proper national parks, full of native indigenous Irish trees, plants, bushes, shrubs, birds and animals.


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