Nature on your farm.

I says · 02-05-2021 11:42pm

Between the indo today and TheJournal.ie us farmers and culchies are getting hammered for spraying everything or flogging the land to death.
My answer come down and spend a day with a farmer and country dwellers before ye attack us.

Base price · 02-05-2021 11:45pm

Capercaillie wrote: »

Why?

Too busy, don't know, don't care...basically it's not a priority.

Lime Tree Farm · 03-05-2021 8:28am

I says wrote: »

Between the indo today and TheJournal.ie us farmers and culchies are getting hammered for spraying everything or flogging the land to death.
My answer come down and spend a day with a farmer and country dwellers before ye attack us.

I totally agree with you and they should visit cities, towns, and villages, housing estates, factories and see how they are contributing to biodiversity. See how much biodiversity is in town parks and housing estates. Even the tidy towns competition encourages sterile planting of colourful sterile flowers, petunias etc. How much biodiversity will you get from sterile cherry blossoms. How many housing estates have concreted over their front lawns to accommodate two or three car parking.
If we want Ireland biodiverse, stop expanding cities, towns and villages, and razing virgin soil. Stop foreign manufacturing, call a stop to the ever increasing job creation. Instead encourage emigration as was traditional, then we won’t be under pressure to provide cheap food and we can go back to an Ireland full of bushes.

manjou · 03-05-2021 10:17am

Had a quick look at the biodiversity website and biggest decline in species is in last 30 odd years. So how has things changed that much in so short a time

80sDiesel · 03-05-2021 10:53am

manjou wrote: »

Had a quick look at the biodiversity website and biggest decline in species is in last 30 odd years. So how has things changed that much in so short a time

The food chain. Carpets of green are no replacement for species rich meadows.

Nice vid below of folks taking about old unimproved meadows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EjPMl4ban0

Dinzee Conlee · 03-05-2021 11:17am

manjou wrote: »

Had a quick look at the biodiversity website and biggest decline in species is in last 30 odd years. So how has things changed that much in so short a time

And maybe to ask a similar question - what are a few things we could do as farmers on our own farms to improve things?

RandomViewer · 03-05-2021 1:47pm

manjou wrote: »

Had a quick look at the biodiversity website and biggest decline in species is in last 30 odd years. So how has things changed that much in so short a time

Where I live now there is little or no agriculture anymore, the fields have become waterlogged and rush filled, 40 years ago these fields would have had animals or spuds,
Intensive farming is taking up much less acreage but the anti-rural political parties are using it to attack all rural areas,

Capercaillie · 03-05-2021 4:06pm

RandomViewer wrote: »

Where I live now there is little or no agriculture anymore, the fields have become waterlogged and rush filled, 40 years ago these fields would have had animals or spuds,
Intensive farming is taking up much less acreage but the anti-rural political parties are using it to attack all rural areas,

Depends on your definition of intensive farming. Biggest driver to farmland biodiversity loss in this country was the advent of early cut silage.

80sDiesel · 03-05-2021 8:13pm

Capercaillie wrote: »

Depends on your definition of intensive farming. Biggest driver to farmland biodiversity loss in this country was the advent of early cut silage.

Yep.

Green carpet farming breaks the food chain leading to habitat loss.

One late hay cut .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7hevcwIfwk

Base price · 03-05-2021 8:56pm

Capercaillie wrote: »

Depends on your definition of intensive farming. Biggest driver to farmland biodiversity loss in this country was the advent of early cut silage.

I would add that slatted housing was possibly the biggest demise.
I personally despise housing cattle on slats. We have a historical 5 bay slatted shed that we bed with straw to rear calves otherwise it's only used to hold cattle during the annual BTE herd test.

Birdnuts · 03-05-2021 9:19pm

RandomViewer wrote: »

Where I live now there is little or no agriculture anymore, the fields have become waterlogged and rush filled, 40 years ago these fields would have had animals or spuds,
Intensive farming is taking up much less acreage but the anti-rural political parties are using it to attack all rural areas,

Not so sure about that - over most of the country the BPS provisions have seen huge destruction of many
remaining farmland habitats over the last 10 years or so

Dinzee Conlee · 20-05-2021 10:25pm

Saw this under a furze bush this evening...
It’s small, maybe an inch or so long...

Any idea what bird it is? There didn’t seem to be any nest from what I could see...

Base price · 20-05-2021 10:50pm

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Saw this under a furze bush this evening...
It’s small, maybe an inch or so long...

Any idea what bird it is? There didn’t seem to be any nest from what I could see...

It looks like a blackbird's egg.

forgottenhills · 21-05-2021 12:16am

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Saw this under a furze bush this evening...
It’s small, maybe an inch or so long...

Any idea what bird it is? There didn’t seem to be any nest from what I could see...

The Mini Eggs bird?

Nekarsulm · 24-05-2021 12:28am

Poor picture, but saw four hares today in a roadside field.
Don't think I ever saw more than two together before..

wrangler · 24-05-2021 7:52am

Base price wrote: »

I would add that slatted housing was possibly the biggest demise.
I personally despise housing cattle on slats. We have a historical 5 bay slatted shed that we bed with straw to rear calves otherwise it's only used to hold cattle during the annual BTE herd test.

That's an awful waste, if it's the same as mine,
Five bay, double slat both sides can acommodate near 200 cattle.
These fancy meadows are grand to look at, but you can't eat the scenery

Dinzee Conlee · 31-05-2021 10:12pm

I had thought these were rabbit burrows, they’re not huge. But looking at them this evening, not sure...
Still, they seem small for a badger I would have thought?

Charolois 19 · 31-05-2021 10:32pm

Looks like a badger set, they don't make a massive hole, have a few sets around our place and entrances only a foot or there abouts,

Base price · 31-05-2021 10:33pm

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

I had thought these were rabbit burrows, they’re not huge. But looking at them this evening, not sure...
Still, they seem small for a badger I would have thought?

Looks like badger borrows. They clean their setts out regularly and the debris is dragged out the entrance like in your pictures.

Anto_Meath · 30-07-2021 4:34pm

Have 20 acres of an out farm at the bottom of a very long quite lane, real quite secluded place, there is the remains of a house with an asbestos roof on it but its a long time since lived there. We have it for over 30 years now, when I was younger there with my dad you would always see loads of rabbits, hares and little birds singing. About 5 years ago a pair of breeding hawks moved in, between them, the foxes and now pine martens there isn't a small bird or rabbit left, nature is a lovely thing but it can cruel, I preferred the rabbits and the birds over any of these vermin...

Base price · 01-08-2021 7:21pm

Bat Conservation Ireland and UCD are looking for people who have bat roosts on their farm/premises to take samples of droppings and send them to UCD for analysis. They want to know what insects they are eating and what role bats play in controlling pest numbers. If you want to get involved click on the link below, it's free.

https://batsandbugs.ie/

whisky_galore · 02-08-2021 9:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117683751#Comment_117683751

The predators have to eat too. Nature is not a Disney movie

jackboy · 02-08-2021 10:01am

A new exasperating trend in my area is the shredding of hedges between fields in June/July. This takes time and effort and there is a cost to it. Don’t see what the farmers are getting out of it.

Lime Tree Farm · 02-08-2021 10:10am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117694225#Comment_117694225

Drive by any ribbon developments of rural housing and you will see the same, they like their surroundings manicured all year round.

wrangler · 02-08-2021 1:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117694225#Comment_117694225

I wouldn't think too many farmers are doing that, they can be fined and lose their farm subsidies if caught

whisky_galore · 02-08-2021 4:41pm

Everyone's at it. Farmers, homeowners, councils, private and state companies.

Nature is getting a hammering from all of the above and esp with the likes of councils and state companies nothing is said about it. I see greenways being developed and trees cut and hedges unnecessarily shaved down to next to nothing and then firing in a few bird boxes as if it's an adequate replacement for something that takes years to regrow.

But shur it's only a few trees and ah shur wha about peoples jobs...typical Ireland.

Lime Tree Farm · 02-08-2021 5:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117694878#Comment_117694878

Does the law & fines apply only to farmers. A nearby mature property changed ownership recently. Trees & shrubs removed, now quarter acre of lawns like a billiard table, to accommodate a robotic lawnmower. They won't be held accountable.