As the old year ended and the new year began, there was one voice that I hadn’t heard on the phone, and I missed him. It marked yet another change and transition in our lives in agriculture. It was the voice of the late Paddy O’Keeffe, former editor of the Irish Farmers Journal.

The anniversary of Paddy’s death falls next week and it is hard to imagine that he will be gone a full year. Paddy and the late Joe Rea were my first mentors when I started writing, and I try to remember their suggestions and insightful ideas.

Paddy always rang me before Christmas to “wish you and the family a happy Christmas”. Then he would ring me after Christmas and this would be the more serious call. It would be about writing and our home farm. He was not shy in asking for figures. He expected answers because, in his view, you should have all your figures if you were running your business correctly. There would be a quick appraisal, with lots of positive suggestions.

His ability to analyse and contribute on so many subjects always stunned me. He had a brain like no other. Then he would invite us to join him in his home for Christmas drinks and lovely food.

This event was not really about partying, but a platform for Paddy to stamp his influence on all things agricultural and to further analyse where agriculture was going. There would be an emphasis on the dairy industry.

There would be no surface scratching of subjects. Paddy made us engage. He would have his own ideas that he would want to float, and his attitude was to get it done and stay positive. Year-on-year, he would bring different people into the fold that he thought would benefit from his direction. He was well able to judge who might listen.

If you were a moaner, he had absolutely no time for you. The people Paddy surrounded himself with were positive people who were committed to achieving and not shy about putting their views across. I try to emulate his positive attitude.

He also had a huge belief in science and the use of it in farming to make our businesses more profitable. This year, Paddy would have had some serious advice for Tim as he begins his term as deputy president of the IFA. I would have loved to hear it. Nevertheless, I am sure that staying positive, using science and optimising production, with a huge focus on generating profit from farming, would be the essence of it.

There would also be a conglomerate of little things that none of us have thought about yet. Paddy spent a lot of time reading and thinking. That is why there are so many of us in the world of agriculture who genuinely miss the late, great, Paddy O’Keeffe for his unwavering support and genuine friendship.

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney was another man that influenced many with his poetry. He died in August and was buried on the day that our son, Colm, graduated from UCD.

On that day, Professor Gerry Boyle, Director of Teagasc, used lines from Heaney’s poems to craft a most insightful address.

He used Digging and the Follower because they talk about transition and change. He said that we could read these poems as depicting the transition within agriculture.

In bygone days, a farmer was successful if he was a skilful and strong labourer. It has now changed to where the application of knowledge holds sway. He encouraged the students to “dig” with the power of their knowledge.

In this new year we will see transition and change in our families and our industry, and I think there is an onus on us to keep abreast of the knowledge and research that is coming on stream every day. Otherwise, it may be hard to connect with the well-educated young farmers of today. O’Keeffe’s legacy to agriculture will be remembered, in part, through the naming of the new facility under construction at Teagasc, Moorepark – the Paddy O’Keeffe Dairy Innovation Centre.

Heaney’s contribution will live on in his poems.

SCAFFOLDING

One of my favourite Seamus Heaney poems is Scaffolding. It is a most meaningful piece of penmanship. It details the necessity of scaffolding when building a wall.

Yet, when it’s all done, the scaffolding is taken down, leaving a solid wall behind. I was lucky to hear Seamus on the radio one day explaining his thoughts when writing the poem.

That is probably why I like it so much. He had an argument with his wife, Marie, and he penned the poem to make amends. The wall was their strong relationship and the scaffolding resembled the trivia of everyday life.

“So if my dear, there sometimes seems to be. Old bridges breaking between you and me. Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall, confident that we have built our wall.”

This is a new year when we can all add to the strength of our walls. There are many walls of family, walls of friendship and walls of agriculture. We each contribute to their construction and to sustaining them. If there is a hole in any of the walls, then it is time to focus on plugging them.

Paddy O’Keeffe was constantly trying to make sure that when the scaffolding of our dairy businesses, farm enterprises, and farm policy came down, what remained were good, sound and solid structures that would sustain the industry in the future.