All the latest opinion and comments on the Irish agricultural industry from the Farmers Journal editorial team.

LATEST ARTICLES
Viewpoints
Home Farm: dry weather drives progress
Matt Dempsey
The beans are in a full six weeks earlier than last year and there is now nothing left to sow.
Home Farm: dry weather drives progress
Dempsey at Large: ownership of breeding rights - a basic principle
26 March 2025 Viewpoints
Dempsey at Large: ownership of breeding rights - a basic principle
We have deliberately built in ICBF a genetics-based organisation, where the data generated by farmers is owned by farmers.
Gerry Boyle: ten years of catch-up after milk quotas
26 March 2025 Viewpoints
Gerry Boyle: ten years of catch-up after milk quotas
Quotas hampered our ability to optimise our efficiency, especially in respect of stocking rates and grass utilisation.
1,300 sought for new CAFRE farm groups
An application window has opened for new Business Sustainability Groups.
26 March 2025 Northern Ireland
Colm McCarthy: evolution of EU's CAP
For a small open economy, it makes sense to encourage production in sectors where there is a prospect of domestic and export sales on advantageous terms.
26 March 2025 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: planning system problems
Planning - the system is tilted against the vigorous pursuit of priorities which are acknowledged at national level.
19 March 2025 Viewpoints
Home Farm: Spring work underway
As I write, we are sowing the beans. I was interested to see that our delivery came from Denmark.
19 March 2025 Viewpoints
Capping brings new dynamic to payments
A progressive cap is to be applied to the new Farm Sustainability Payment.
19 March 2025 Northern Ireland
Dempsey at Large: The United States - a complex ally
Last week the cattlemen in the United States called again for a fundamental reappraisal of the place of imports of beef from Brazil on the US market.
19 March 2025 Viewpoints
Opinion: whiskey tariffs are the cloud in bright March skies
Good weather means a spring in the step of farmers planting crops, but the markets are not as bright as the weather, with tariffs (yet again) a threat.
15 March 2025 Opinion
Home Farm: Lime levels being counted
We don’t use that much lime, but it’s noticeable that even on just one farm that pH levels vary from one field with a pH of over 7.5 while a small grass paddock was analysed at 5.5.
12 March 2025 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: It’s not just tariffs that could hurt – our taxes are targets too
The capital programme was halved in volume by 2014 and has only lately recovered to pre-crash levels.
12 March 2025 Viewpoints