The viability of farming careers over the past century and into the future is discussed in a new book authored by a former agricultural advisor.
‘A century of sustainability in Irish agriculture‘ is the title of the book, written by Kerry native, Seamus O’Dowd.
He touches on topics including: Crops; finances; machinery development; nutrition; breeding; genetics; health and welfare of crops and animals.
The University College Dublin (UCD) graduate was a pig advisor with Clonaslee Co-Operative Society in Laois in 1982.
He then joined ACOT, a Teagasc run, semi-state organisation and the national advisory and training body, as an agricultural advisor in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal.
He subsequently went on to cover the west Cork and Kerry regions as an advisor on pig production.
O’Dowd also spent a number of years working in dairy production in Clonakilty Co. Cork. After his retirement from Teagasc in 2015, he remarks that he had no intention to write, but needed something to pass the time when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
He chose to write about agriculture stating that it was ” the only thing I could write”.
Agricultural developments in the book
Throughout the book, O’Dowd touches on how agriculture has developed now, compared to a century ago, with the “transfer of the horse to the tractor”.
Touching on the incorporation of sustainability into agriculture nowadays, O’Dowd commented that “the point I was trying to make is that farms have been sustained down through the years and they always… took on the challenge of sustaining family farms”.
The biggest change O’Dowd encountered as an agricultural advisor was in relation to farming regulations such as the introduction of the single farm payment and derogation.
He comments that most of the regulations that have arisen over the last 20 years.
According to O’Dowd a lot of the changes occurred in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.
He said:
“Hand milking changed to milking machines; you had the introduction of chemicals to the wheat control, there was tending to be done by hand to a lot of the crops and you had to monitor the seed coming in.
“In pig production, there were a lot of farms with pigs; in the 60s, a third of the farms had pigs, the whole thing changed in the 1970s.”
Food security
Touching on the significance of sustainability in agriculture, his book references how it is important to find new sustainable ways to continue to produce food and to continue farming as the population is increasing.
“The global population is increasing so it’s important that we sustain farming and sustain food production,” he added.
One of the key issues that O’Dowd raises in his book is the issue of growing crops for animals.
The former agri advisor explained how he believes Ireland should move away from using imported feeds such as imported grain.
He emphasised that farmers need to focus more on utilising grass in a better way and suggested that farmers stop relying on grain, but instead should focus on grass production to maximise output.
He also mentioned how the climate in Ireland is “suitable for grass production and has potential to increase grass production”.
“If we look at our competitors [for] grass production, one being New Zealand, on lot of farms in New Zealand they have irrigation, it’s a costly and scare-some system as they have to take water and it’s getting scarcer,” he concluded.