Over the years, the enterprise base underlying Irish farming has narrowed significantly. Pigs and poultry have moved from being farmyard enterprises on the normal family farm to being highly specialised large-scale production units, especially in the case of pigs. The recent move to free range poultry production has restored some requirement for land in this enterprise, but the overall, number of producers involved is small. There are now just about 300 farms where pig production is a serious enterprise.

But it’s not just in specialised livestock that we have seen a contraction in enterprise choice. The disappearance of sugar beet as a crop and a domestic industry has removed one of the central planks in the tillage sector, while the disappearance of milling wheat has also meant the disappearance of an associated milling industry. It is noteworthy that the only recent crop development has been beans, which has been encouraged by a special production aid per acre paid, out of general CAP funds. But side by side with that, we have seen the potatoes and vegetable crops diminish in scale dramatically. It was in the context of this ever reducing range of options that I was intrigued to see, in the latest Teagasc Research bulletin, the possibility of resurrecting the dried grass industry. How many people remember dried grass as a source of high quality protein for monogastrics before the first oil price crisis in the early 70s? The bulletin blames the arrival of soya beans and the increase in oil prices for the industry’s demise.

Domestically, the Irish Government has been slow in encouraging the development of alternative or innovative farm enterprises, especially in energy production, whether on farm digesters, solar power, or bioethanol. It is also noticeable that despite Ireland achieving high yields of oilseed rape, we still have no industrial-scale processing plant. Teagasc even listed the members of the old grass driers association. Work on this area is now going on internationally – Ireland has more to gain than most if it comes to fruition.

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