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I farm 230ac outside Ballymoney, Co Antrim with my father John and mother Rosemary, (an excellent calf rearer!) We run a 105-cow dairy herd plus replacements, along with an Aberdeen Angus dairy beef enterprise.
Like most farmers, I have an extremely strong passion for the agricultural industry and particularly the livestock sector.
However, sometimes this passion is not expressed at the most opportune of moments. I am not allowed to forget my first date with my now wife Lynsey, which involved walking along the beach at the White Rocks in Portrush, with a magnificent sunset in the background.
Other people may have used this as an opportunity to tell her how beautiful she looked in the evening light. However, I thought this would be a suitable time to give her an in-depth lecture on how beneficial I thought the combination of genomics and sexed semen would be to the Northern Irish dairy industry. Who says romance is dead?
It is because, as farmers, we have such a passion and love for the industry that we can get a bit apoplectic when others criticise our vocation.
I engage a bit on social media, and have come across some overly sanctimonious vegans with some pretty strange Twitter bios. For example, there are bios along the lines of ‘because going to bed each night makes my soul shine – go vegan.’
Furthermore, there are the leaked emails from a top Treasury advisor, Dr Tim Leuing. He remarked that the UK doesn’t need farmers because it can import all required food, and that the nation would ‘become rich without an agricultural sector’. Essentially, he is basing Brexit Britain on the example of Singapore.
When we as farmers read statements such as these, we not only feel understandably angry, but also rejected. There is a proportion of society who feel that our life’s work can be replaced by imports, and to some we are supposedly an economic inconvenience.
In my view however, such comments as those from Dr Leuing only serve to highlight his own ignorance and arrogance.
Food security
One of the lessons that we must learn from the current coronavirus outbreak is that unforeseen circumstances can affect international interdependent supply chains, with potentially disastrous consequences.
This is why any sensible, pragmatic government must ensure it has its own secure supply of food by giving farmers the support and appreciation that they deserve.
If Dr Leuing had fully researched the food procurement policy of Singapore, he would also have noticed that its Food Agency intends to increase the nation’s food production so it can supply 30% of the state’s nutritional needs.
Manage
However, while I can’t write government agricultural policy, I can try to manage my business, in order to make the most of what I have.
With that aim in mind, I have been using the brief periods between the regular downpours to soil sample the entire farm. One positive from the recent wet weather – at least it has made it very easy for the soil sampler to pierce the ground.
During my studies at Greenmount, one of the things that stood out was an exchange study tour to Kildalton College in Kilkenny. It is a fine institution that prides itself justifiably on having cows producing high levels of milk solids from grass in early February.
We “Nordy” folk were given a bit of good natured abuse for – horror of horrors – not only daring to milk the dreaded Holstein, but also having the audacity to not let them graze grass until the middle of April.
But after the February we have had, I reckon even the most hardy of Cork or Kilkenny crossbreds would have struggled to thrive in the realities of a north Antrim winter.
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