Rachel Martin

Rachel Martin Profile Picture

Rachel Martin specialises in writing about agri-business, food production and dairying. Previously, she worked as a business reporter at one of Northern Ireland’s biggest daily newspapers. In 2017 she was named one of IFAJ's 10 Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism. She is currently secretary of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists in Northern Ireland. When she’s not writing, Rachel can usually be found in the milking parlour at home in Co. Down with her family's 130 cows.

‘Hope for the best; plan for the worst’: How British tillage experts are planning for Brexit
‘Hope for the best; plan for the worst’: How British tillage experts are planning for Brexit

UK cereal farmers are being urged to proactively plan for Brexit and not to “wait and see” what happens. Tillage...

All set for Macra’s ‘Royal Rally’: Here’s what members will be getting up to in Meath
All set for Macra’s ‘Royal Rally’: Here’s what members will be getting up to in Meath

The countdown is on for the largest event on the Macra na Feirme calendar, with just over a week to...

Ophelia: How my quick-thinking family stopped the roof from coming down
Ophelia: How my quick-thinking family stopped the roof from coming down

Ulster braced itself for the worst, but by the time Ophelia reached the northern counties she had lost much of...

Avian influenza text service launched for Northern poultry farmers
Avian influenza text service launched for Northern poultry farmers

A text service has been launched to keep poultry farmers and bird keepers updated with the latest avian influenza threats....

Court forces fuel-laundering farmer to pay back £15,500
Court forces fuel-laundering farmer to pay back £15,500

A Crossmaglen farmer involved in fuel laundering has had £15,571 (€17,518) confiscated in court after 127t of domestic and commercial waste...

Former Dunbia boss sets up agri-food consultancy firm
Former Dunbia boss sets up agri-food consultancy firm

A meat industry, heavy-weight who once directed one of the island’s largest meat firms, has ventured out on his own...

Major poultry conference to take place in Co. Tyrone
Major poultry conference to take place in Co. Tyrone

A major poultry conference encouraging Northern farmers to keep ahead of the industry’s challenges is set to take place next...

Two farmers hospitalised just hours before slurry ban deadline
Two farmers hospitalised just hours before slurry ban deadline

Two Co. Tyrone farmers have been hospitalised, and three animals have died, in a slurry accident just hours before this...

Trans-frontier: How AD industry experts say Brexit will hit Ireland’s biogas sector
Trans-frontier: How AD industry experts say Brexit will hit Ireland’s biogas sector

Access to finance, land and maintaining cross-border relationships are some of the biggest challenges the island’s Anaerobic Digestion (AD) industry will...

More than 100 points of cross-border co-operation to be discussed
More than 100 points of cross-border co-operation to be discussed

More than 100 points of North-South co-operation need to be hammered out as part of the finer detail of the...

Slurry ban’s ‘reasonable excuse’: Everything you need to know
Slurry ban’s ‘reasonable excuse’: Everything you need to know

Northern farmers have been given an eleventh hour reprieve from the slurry ban with the ‘reasonable excuse‘ clause in the Nitrates...

‘Reasonable excuse’ slurry ban reprieve for struggling Northern farmers
‘Reasonable excuse’ slurry ban reprieve for struggling Northern farmers

Under pressure Northern farmers have been given an eleventh hour reprieve from the slurry ban, but union officials are warning...

Tyrone brothers fined £9,000 for waste offences
Tyrone brothers fined £9,000 for waste offences

Two Co. Tyrone brothers have been fined in court for failing to correctly dispose of waste. John McDonnell of Frenchman’s...

Could NI’s AD industry be used as a pilot for nutrient management?
Could NI’s AD industry be used as a pilot for nutrient management?

Anaerobic Digestion (AD) could allow farmers to more effectively manage nutrient loading if digestate is correctly applied, researchers told delegates...

103 Anaerobic Digestion plants approved in Northern Ireland as AD sector booms
103 Anaerobic Digestion plants approved in Northern Ireland as AD sector booms

Northern Ireland’s Anaerobic Digestion (AD) sector is set to rocket within the next half decade. A government official who deals...

Cash crop farming: Why it doesn’t always pay to produce more
Cash crop farming: Why it doesn’t always pay to produce more

Growing more doesn’t always mean making more; farmers in Finland explain how they believe EU subsidies hold back productive agriculture....

Pics: Tractor, combine and van involved in bizarre three-vehicle crash
Pics: Tractor, combine and van involved in bizarre three-vehicle crash

A bizarre dual carriageway smash up saw a tractor, combine and van caught up in a three-vehicle crash on one...

Caterpillar fined for diesel spill which saw 40,000L end up in the Irish Sea
Caterpillar fined for diesel spill which saw 40,000L end up in the Irish Sea

Caterpillar (NI) has been fined after a spill at its Co. Antrim factory saw more than 40,000L of diesel make its...