Hill farmers are custodians of some of the most natural beautiful and important parts of our landscape in Ireland, but have always struggled to achieve financial and social sustainability due to the harsh realities of farming our upland areas.
Selling livestock from hill land has long been unable to provide for the financial needs of farmers, and without work outside of the and/or CAP aid, many of these farms would cease to exist.
This can be seen historically in a premia being paid for ewes back in the 1990s leading to overgrazing of hill areas, while the corresponding payment for destocking has left much of these hills under grazed since, posing a serious risk of summer upland fires, as well as being of lower value to flora and fauna. Farmers had to follow the money.
Under grazing has resulted in bracken competing in upland farms, smothering out natural grasses and herbs underneath.
While all sectors are struggling to encourage more young people in to their farming practice, hill farming is struggling even harder.
Skills are not being transferred, such as knowledge about husbandry of stock on the hill, and look set to be lost entirely.
Anecdotal evidence is now showing that production from our hill farms is falling.
A good deal of enclosed farms have converted to organic production, and with no chemical fertilisers allowed for improved lower ground, and expensive organic ration costs, stock numbers are rarely retained on these holdings.
Barren ewes are also reportedly being held on farms, with scant regard for litter size. With current store lamb prices from hill flocks, with as little as €2/kg liveweight being paid, it’s hard to blame them at times.
What can be done to address the issue?
Eco schemes
Convergence has seen a flattening of payments, with a major shift from production-based farms to more extensive farms.
However, many farmers feel none the better for this, and some even feel guilt associated with taking this money. Traditonal eco schemes, such as REPS were a real win-win for farms, with drastic improvements made aesthetically and environmentally, all the while providing a major cash injection to these high nature farms.
Hill farmers are the custodians of some of our most environmentally important tracts of land in Ireland.
ACRES and it’s associated issues have failed to meet the standards set by REPS.
Not alone will many farmers be less well off (especially when inflation is taken in to account), but the delaying of payments and lack of clarity around scoring have left a sour taste in the mouths of many.
While ACRES looks likely to run it’s course, a major rethink needs to go in to what is to follow it.
Improvements in livestock
Pure mountain breeds of sheep, such as Cheviot and Scotch Blackface, have been crossed with lowland breeds such as Bluefaced Leicester, Texel and Suffolk for many years, with the resultant crosses being more valuable from both a finishing and breeding potential point of view.
If higher-valued progeny can be produced from our hill flock, then there will be greater reward for farmers to target lower barren rates and higher litter rates, making hill farms slightly more financially sustainable.
Once enough replacements are retained, then a financially sensible option would be to avail of crossbreeding.
A good example of how this might work is the Offaly Lamb Producer Group.
Farmers involved in the group receive €200 back on the purchase cost of a genotyped five-star Texel ram.
While these types of rams may be out of the price reach of hill farmers, a similar scheme whereby hill farmers who purchase pedigree registered lowland rams and receive monetary aid towards the cost of them may yield benefit.
Investments in infrastructure
I talked earlier about bracken taking over on some hill farms. It is mainly evident in ‘green’ hills where more ample forage for livestock is available. One such area is in Wicklow, where the SUAS project looked at some ways of reducing it’s spread through ‘bracken bruising’, where a tractor mounted flail and two quad drawn flails were used to aid in breaking the stem of the bracken, in a similar way that cattle grazing would, to reduce it’s spread.
Making these machines available, either through leasing out or increasing grant rates through TAMS, may be a way of helping to control bracken and reduce wild fire risk, which devastates the sensitive upland habitats when it does occur.
Saying this, why have a machine that replicates cattle when cattle could be introduced.
Hardy hill breeds such as Galloway, Highland and native Irish Maoil can survive and thrive in upland areas, grazing different species of grass to their sheep counterparts.
Many farmers cite that cattle have been removed from hills for many years due to containment issues, with new fences not allowed on the majority of SAC or SPA land.
With the advancements in technology, we now have collars which can work off fences drawn on a computer or phone screen.
Cattle wearing these collars can be successfully held in areas where their grazing is required, and fenced off from areas which are too sensitive for heavier stock and more suited to sheep. Would these collars not slot in to TAMS with relative ease?
Land abandonment is socially and environmentally unsustainable, and steps need to be taken to ensure it does not continue. Better thought out and more financially rewarding eco-schemes are required going forward for hill farms. Improvements in livestock, and increased grant rates for investments in improving upland areas are viable ways of improving hill farm sustainability.
Hill farmers are custodians of some of the most natural beautiful and important parts of our landscape in Ireland, but have always struggled to achieve financial and social sustainability due to the harsh realities of farming our upland areas.
Selling livestock from hill land has long been unable to provide for the financial needs of farmers, and without work outside of the and/or CAP aid, many of these farms would cease to exist.
This can be seen historically in a premia being paid for ewes back in the 1990s leading to overgrazing of hill areas, while the corresponding payment for destocking has left much of these hills under grazed since, posing a serious risk of summer upland fires, as well as being of lower value to flora and fauna. Farmers had to follow the money.
Under grazing has resulted in bracken competing in upland farms, smothering out natural grasses and herbs underneath.
While all sectors are struggling to encourage more young people in to their farming practice, hill farming is struggling even harder.
Skills are not being transferred, such as knowledge about husbandry of stock on the hill, and look set to be lost entirely.
Anecdotal evidence is now showing that production from our hill farms is falling.
A good deal of enclosed farms have converted to organic production, and with no chemical fertilisers allowed for improved lower ground, and expensive organic ration costs, stock numbers are rarely retained on these holdings.
Barren ewes are also reportedly being held on farms, with scant regard for litter size. With current store lamb prices from hill flocks, with as little as €2/kg liveweight being paid, it’s hard to blame them at times.
What can be done to address the issue?
Eco schemes
Convergence has seen a flattening of payments, with a major shift from production-based farms to more extensive farms.
However, many farmers feel none the better for this, and some even feel guilt associated with taking this money. Traditonal eco schemes, such as REPS were a real win-win for farms, with drastic improvements made aesthetically and environmentally, all the while providing a major cash injection to these high nature farms.
Hill farmers are the custodians of some of our most environmentally important tracts of land in Ireland.
ACRES and it’s associated issues have failed to meet the standards set by REPS.
Not alone will many farmers be less well off (especially when inflation is taken in to account), but the delaying of payments and lack of clarity around scoring have left a sour taste in the mouths of many.
While ACRES looks likely to run it’s course, a major rethink needs to go in to what is to follow it.
Improvements in livestock
Pure mountain breeds of sheep, such as Cheviot and Scotch Blackface, have been crossed with lowland breeds such as Bluefaced Leicester, Texel and Suffolk for many years, with the resultant crosses being more valuable from both a finishing and breeding potential point of view.
If higher-valued progeny can be produced from our hill flock, then there will be greater reward for farmers to target lower barren rates and higher litter rates, making hill farms slightly more financially sustainable.
Once enough replacements are retained, then a financially sensible option would be to avail of crossbreeding.
A good example of how this might work is the Offaly Lamb Producer Group.
Farmers involved in the group receive €200 back on the purchase cost of a genotyped five-star Texel ram.
While these types of rams may be out of the price reach of hill farmers, a similar scheme whereby hill farmers who purchase pedigree registered lowland rams and receive monetary aid towards the cost of them may yield benefit.
Investments in infrastructure
I talked earlier about bracken taking over on some hill farms. It is mainly evident in ‘green’ hills where more ample forage for livestock is available. One such area is in Wicklow, where the SUAS project looked at some ways of reducing it’s spread through ‘bracken bruising’, where a tractor mounted flail and two quad drawn flails were used to aid in breaking the stem of the bracken, in a similar way that cattle grazing would, to reduce it’s spread.
Making these machines available, either through leasing out or increasing grant rates through TAMS, may be a way of helping to control bracken and reduce wild fire risk, which devastates the sensitive upland habitats when it does occur.
Saying this, why have a machine that replicates cattle when cattle could be introduced.
Hardy hill breeds such as Galloway, Highland and native Irish Maoil can survive and thrive in upland areas, grazing different species of grass to their sheep counterparts.
Many farmers cite that cattle have been removed from hills for many years due to containment issues, with new fences not allowed on the majority of SAC or SPA land.
With the advancements in technology, we now have collars which can work off fences drawn on a computer or phone screen.
Cattle wearing these collars can be successfully held in areas where their grazing is required, and fenced off from areas which are too sensitive for heavier stock and more suited to sheep. Would these collars not slot in to TAMS with relative ease?
Land abandonment is socially and environmentally unsustainable, and steps need to be taken to ensure it does not continue. Better thought out and more financially rewarding eco-schemes are required going forward for hill farms. Improvements in livestock, and increased grant rates for investments in improving upland areas are viable ways of improving hill farm sustainability. 
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