Upland farming is set to be incorporated into a module carried out by Teagasc in their education programmes for the next academic year.
This was confirmed by Teagasc director, Prof. Frank O’Mara, who spoke at the Teagasc national hill sheep conference last night (Thursday, February 15) in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow.
O’Mara said a response to “a call for greater inclusion of uplands in our education programmes”, is “currently being prepared”.
He said this would be completed “in advance of the start of the next academic year.
“We hope to have a module available for students both in full-time or in part-time courses in relation to upland management.”
The Teagasc director also detailed other work the agriculture and food development authority is carrying out.
“We are developing plans to continue investigating options for finishing hill-bred lambs from forage brassica crops, but we’re also looking at options for finishing lambs within organic systems.
O’Mara also said that Teagasc is set to organise a workshop around the research needs for the uplands “sometime later in 2024”.
Upland farming
At the conference, Declan Byrne of Teagasc, detailed the progress of the Sustainable Uplands Agriculture-environment Scheme (SUAS) in the Wicklow/Dublin uplands.
The project is designed to assist both commonage groups and individual hill farmers across the Wicklow and Dublin uplands and ensure the sustainable management of sheep on the hills.
Byrne highlighted that the work farmers are carrying out on the hills must be sustaining their income.
Byrne said: “The bottom line is, if we’re talking about stock on the hills, they should be contributing to the farm income.
“There might not be a huge amount of money in it, but if those sheep that graze the hills, they are delivering environmental payments, that income is coming from having those sheep there.”
He said the Wicklow/Dublin uplands are “different from the west of Ireland” as “most farmers around here have some good land that goes up to the edge of the hill”.
In the region in Leinster, Byrne said some sheep farmers are “trying to manage good land and hill land,” but added that “a lot of people have fallen in to the trap of having one type of sheep on the farm”.
Byrne detailed that hill sheep farmers who also have lowland grazing “should be looking towards having one type of sheep for the hill, and a different type of sheep in the lowlands”.
Therefore, these farmers should be aiming to have their sheep in the hill that are “hardy sheep” that require “very little work”, while the sheep in the lowland should be bred to produce “lots of lambs” of “good quality”.