A locally led scheme built for the Blackstairs

The decline of hill farming is evident and, as one farmer said, “you don’t learn about hill farming in agricultural college”. Challenges like stock losses, maintaining boundaries and scrub and bracken encroachment are making farming on the Blackstairs mountains increasingly difficult. Analysis of CSO data has confirmed that since 1991 there has been a 50% reduction in farm holders under the age of 44 in the townlands surrounding the Blackstairs mountain range, alongside a similar reduction in sheep numbers.

In June 2014, the Blackstairs community seized the opportunity offered by the locally led measure in the RDP to better understand and deal with the problems faced by their hill farmers. With the help of the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism (EFNCP,) the Heritage Council and Wexford and Carlow local authorities, they identified a number of significant issues:

“The whole idea of locally led is that farmers themselves are involved in the project and they decide what is workable,” said Helena Fitzgerald, coordinator of the Blackstairs Farming Group (BFG). “It started with people from the Blackstairs attending a number of conferences to understand a bit more about how upland farming is viewed. That led us to high nature value (HNV) farming and with help from the IUF, the group then made a study trip to the Burren to learn about the whole locally led approach.”

HNV values upland farming and the ecosystem it delivers.

“Grazing is fundamental to the system but, economically, it is no longer sufficient to sustain hill farming. The balance is tipping towards these eco-system services, the public good of a beautiful landscape, high levels of biodiversity and the high levels of water quality that these landscapes deliver.”

The Blackstairs and its hinterlands do not have a strong resilient economy. In 2014, Teagasc named Bunclody the most economically depressed small town in Ireland. The area depends on agriculture and if agriculture is not doing well, the local economy struggles.

However, this locally led project is not about returning to an idealised past, but examines how hill farming can better fit into a modern farming enterprise while maintaining the mountain in optimum condition for the environment and for the farmer.

“There is this romanticised view of hill farming and you have these iconic pictures of old farmers, but those farmers are dying and that’s the issue here in the Blackstairs,” said Fitzgerald, who is an architect based in Borris.

Another issue in the Blackstairs mountains is the delay in implementing a locally led measure for upland peats.

“Given the importance of peatlands for carbon sequestration, the BFG is concerned to hear of a delay until 2017 in the implementation of the ‘conservation of upland peats’ priority in the locally led measure of the RDP,” said Fitzgerald. “The BFG had hoped that the locally led pilots would be established quickly to inform the development of the next RDP, post 2021, but this is now in doubt.”

Martin Shannon, chair of the BFG committee, highlights the need for politicians to prioritise sustaining mountain farming.

“Unless people come up to the table and show an interest in keeping people in these areas, there’s going to be nobody there and that will harm tourism, which is one of the biggest industries in the country,” he said.

“Our mountains are in good condition, but they won’t be kept that way if farmers don’t stay farming in those areas.

The committee contains both upland and lowland farmers, local councillors and a retired environmental scientist. In October 2015, they expanded to include representative farmers from townlands around the mountain range.

“My view is, on the positive side, that now is the time to take action. If you come back in 20 years’ time it’ll be too late. We are after establishing that the mountain is in good repair in our area, we need to get the support now to keep it that way,” Shannon said.

Farmer focus: Tomás McCarthy

Tomás McCarthy, vice-chair of the Blackstairs farming group, farms a large flock of Wicklow cheviot ewes.

“It was always Wicklow cheviot ewes on the Blackstairs mountains, but they’re getting less and less with the crossbreds being introduced every year,” he said. “One great benefit we had in the Blackstairs over the years was the Borris ewe, and people came from all over Ireland to buy the Borris ewe.”

Indeed, the breeding of the Borris ewe is what’s “keeping me going at the minute; producing the first cross out of the cheviot ewe off Mount Leinster.”

According to McCarthy, a locally led approach is “bringing farmers together a bit. Instead of one farmer thinking his opinion, and another having a different opinion, we’re all bringing our opinions together and maybe we can solve some of the problems”.

Approaches

Broad-brush approaches that apply to the whole country are not always the answer, according to McCarthy.

“The younger farmer sees no future in [hill farming], especially after the destocking came in. They cut people’s subsidies that time for three years, which took money out of pockets.”

He is not opposed to teaming up with other groups to explore other avenues with the locally led approach.

“The Blackstairs group is leaving it open to anyone who is interested in working with us on the hills.”

However, a major problem for farmers is dog control.

“I was nearly put out of business with a dog attack – it took me three years to build back up the flock.

“No one wants to see their dogs killing sheep, but it’s happening so frequently and they don’t realise they can put a farmer out of business. Micro-chipping is brilliant if it works,” McCarthy said.