Farming for biodiversity champion to address Mayo meeting
THE Lough Carra Catchment Association will hold its next public meeting at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 19, at Belcarra Community Centre.
Guest speaker is Donal Sheehan, a dairy farmer from the Bride Valley in east Cork, who played a pivotal role in establishing the BRIDE EIP Project. His journey from an intensive dairy farmer to a biodiversity champion offers an inspiring perspective on sustainable farming and environmental stewardship.
Donal manages a herd of 70 cows at Blossom Farm near Castlelyons. In the 1990s he followed the typical practice of intensive farming, but his outlook shifted when he began keeping bees. This experience opened his eyes to the vital role of nature on his farm.
Since then, he has transformed his approach, actively working to lower nutrient inputs, reduce chemical sprays, conserve water, and enhance biodiversity. Donal now endeavours ‘to push the boat out all the time trying to make farming more sustainable, farming with nature rather than against it’.
He has dedicated a proportion of his farm to biodiversity, including ponds, pollinator strips and wild bird cover for overwintering birds.
Ireland’s dairy expansion is an impressive economic success story, but it has brought significant environmental challenges. The BRIDE Project (Biodiversity Regeneration in a Dairying Environment), which ran from 2018 to 2023, tackled these issues head-on.
The core concept is that every farm and every farmer is different, and the project took an innovative, farm-specific approach, focusing on the unique habitats of individual farms. Farms were mapped to estimate their Space for Nature, and a Farmland Biodiversity Index was created to reflect the quantity and quality of biodiversity on each farm.
At the start of the project, Donal noted that shifting farmers' mindsets has been the biggest challenge. He explained that, in the past, farmers were often encouraged to cultivate every available inch of land. He has said that ‘every farmer is connected with nature, but that connection was broken when we got intensive. We need to find a middle ground, leave room for nature’.
Donal has also served as a Farming for Nature Ambassador, advocating for a shift in both perception and mindset regarding the connection between agriculture and nature.
He has: “No value was being placed on ponds, bogs or hedgerows; in fact you were penalised if you let your land go to scrub.
“We were on a road to expansion, now we are crying out for biodiversity and space for nature and it’s not there. No one is ever going to bring back any of the species on their own, you need a landscape effect.”
Additionally, Donal has submitted a petition to the Houses of the Oireachtas, drawing attention to the urgent challenges facing the dairy farming sector. He points to the mounting pressure on farmers to increase production, often amid diminishing financial returns, and cautions that this relentless 'more for less' approach is placing a serious strain on the environment.
You can hear more of Donal’s inspiring story at the upcoming Lough Carra Catchment Association meeting this November. Everyone is invited to attend.