Opinion: Now we see how much farming does matter, but what happens after?

Many farmers and contractors are busy. It’s an almost surreal sight, when set against the situation that many other people across the country now find themselves.

We see some farmers struggling to grapple with their workloads. In times past, on-farm help was available in greater abundance. But times can and do change (as the Covid-19 crisis has so vividly shown).

All the while, we all pay lip-service to the need to attract young blood into the industry.

Well-meaning agricultural ‘glitterati’ pop up at high-brow conferences, bemoaning the dearth of new farming entrants – or the apparent unwillingness of the next generation to follow in their fathers’ (or, albeit less often, their mothers’) footsteps.

Much of the reason for this is obvious.

The dairy industry had stood aloof, for fear that unwanted attention might be drawn to fact that many dairy farmers have actually been making a good living (almost as if that was something to feel guilty about). But, amidst the ongoing pandemic, warning signs abound there too.

Full-time farmers

Against that background, it’s clear why – in many instances – full-time farming parents have encouraged their own ‘weanlings’ towards a less precarious way of life. In bygone days, the priesthood, the bank or the civil service were seen as ‘safe’ routes of travel – for sons that weren’t next in line for the farm or were otherwise ill-suited to such an existence.

Now, in a very different Ireland, the church holds allure for very few as a ‘full-time job’ – or, should we more reverently say, a ‘full-time vocation’. Even the banks – once monuments to unerring solidity – have lost some of their marble-like veneer. Like the rest of us – the great unwashed – they, too, must ‘fumble in a geasy till’ in a cut-throat world.

Unless you’ve inherited a significant chunk of land, it’s a daunting task. The problem with land in Ireland, as they say, is that ‘they’re not making any more of it’. Compounding all of this is the fact that agricultural land is comparatively expensive to buy or rent – certainly when set against the potential returns from most agricultural endeavours.

Moreover, CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) funding is – we are told – intended for ‘active farmers’. Yet we know of examples over the years where owners rather than ‘active farmers’ (in instances where these two cohorts are not the same) were the beneficiaries.

In any event, if the mood music that surrounds farming continues to be a bleak, apocalyptic soundtrack, we shouldn’t be surprised if the up-and-coming generations chose a different path. That’s not to say that we should simply (and recklessly) ‘talk things up’, but perhaps there’s a balance to be struck.

In the meanwhile, it’s heartening to see farmers and contractors busy on the byroads (albeit isolating themselves from others) – at a time when many other industries must lie in ‘limbo’.