I was a very young boy when I first heard the expression: "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear". We had about 8 sows in the yard at that time and I was intrigued about it and it put me thinking. What do I use a purse for? Holding the coins from my piggy bank of course (my pocket money at the time). Which purse would I rather have? One made out of silk or one made out of pigskin? Hmmm.

This dilemma has followed me around ever since and I really cannot decide. It gets into everything I do. The silk option is always expensive and as a frugal minded bloke, I have generally found myself fixing up a sows ear for the job. But I have definitely got far more enjoyment of doing that.

Rushy farm

My parents followed their emigrant's dream back to Ireland in 1959. The emigrants dream back then was to own and raise a family on a hundred acres of Irish land. The silk option would have been a wooded farm in the Golden Vale or one of the many bits and pieces of special land around the country but these were scarce and fiercely contested wherever they came up.

The "sow’s ear" option was the "hundred acre rushy farm in a ring fence with a never failing stream" (rushy was not in the auctioneer’s version). All farmers dream of the perfect farm but most of us live very happy lives working to improve the farm we have.

Every farmer can have a different idea of what his farm can be. Like artists, farmers have the privilege and responsibility of creating and changing landscapes. We can use our forty shades of green, turn green to brown with the stroke of a plough, turn it again to yellow or gold with a sprinkle of our choice of seed, introduce mobile specks of white with a few sheep or multicolour it with sheep and cattle and we can frame our picture with trees or good fences. Unlike a canvass, our artwork is ever changing and evolving each day of the year and can be different every year and is never finished. Even when the piggy bank is empty it can give satisfaction.

Drone camera

I have a friend who has a drone with a camera and I have asked him to fly it over my place next week to take some video and pictures. I am looking forward to seeing the big picture of my "sow’s ear" and where I can continue to give it a touch up. It's an idea I would strongly recommend to every farmer.

Happy painting.

P.S. For another big picture of the power of farming to change the world, browse to www.paywall.glocast.com/Savory-institute/. This is a link to a conference in London held last weekend entitled "Putting grasslands to work". Some really inspirational speakers. I strongly recommend a while spent on this link. It will only be there free for the next 30 days and it is powerful stuff of which I will write again.

*William Considine farms Nicharee Farm in Duncormick, Co Wexford.