DEAR EDITOR: Was the editor being tongue in cheek last week saying there was “a real disconnect between the farmers and the current research programme” in Northern Ireland? Did he not really mean to say Donegal or indeed the west of Ireland?

Teagasc, to its credit, has done world-leading research over the last 40 years of great benefit to the 2% and 1%, respectively, of Donegal farmers who milk and till.

I can find no peer-reviewed research published in those 40 years by Teagasc relevant to my suckling cow production on the uplands of the Derryveaghs and Bluestacks. Such uplands constitute the majority and almost a quarter of the Donegal and Republic’s land masses, respectively.

In contrast, north of the border, there has been some great research done on beef production on all land types, both lowland and upland.

In Donegal, we are grateful to learn from the excellent research done in Antrim on the Glenwherry estate on upland farming, in general, and upland suckling, in particular.

In the absence of such a research facility in the south, we should ask the Government’s Shared Island unit to support more upland beef research funding in Antrim.