Farming - West Cork People

Challenging year of weather pushes farmers into early winter routine

Tommy Moyles October, 2024

The week of sunshine around the ploughing has drifted into distant memory and you’d swear we have just skipped October and gone straight into November. Southeasterly wind storms tend to be the worst here and the one on the last weekend of September left every east-facing window with a spattering […]

A West Cork Farming Life: Jer Coakley, Clonakilty

Tommy Moyles September, 2024

Skibbereen’s Olympic rowers may have dominated the West Cork gold medal winning headlines of late but a world title also found its way to the region in August writes Tommy Moyles. Clonakilty’s Jer Coakley was one of two Irish ploughmen to win on the world stage in mid-August, on the […]

Managing the uncontrollable

Tommy Moyles August, 2024

I can’t recall as challenging a 12 months in farming as the past year, even looking back to the extremes in 2012 with a washout summer and accompanying fodder crisis into May 2013. Fast forward five years and it got more extreme. Beginning with hurricane Ophelia in October 2017, through […]

Farming

Making the switch to organic

WCP Staff March, 2024

With over 5,000 participants in the Organic Farming Scheme in 2024, the area being farmed organically in Ireland has tripled since 2020. While this shows a significant pace of growth, it is however still far off the EU target of 25 per cent of agricultural land in the EU to […]

Happy pigs on Dundeady free range farm

Tommy Moyles November, 2023

If you’re travelling along the Wild Atlantic Way, in the vicinity of the Galley Head lighthouse and Long Strand at Castlefreke, you may have noticed the appearance of a small herd of pigs in recent years. Shane Kenneally and his family started breeding pigs on the small holding they have […]

Uncertain times for dairy farmers

Tommy Moyles October, 2023

It’s been a disheartening backend! I thought we might get a run of settled dry weather in September given how wet things were in July and August but it wasn’t to be with Storm Agnes adding yet more wind and rain to deal with. Dock leaves in the field closest […]

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