Four Mayo farmers contribute to book on more sustainable farming future

IRISH farmers - including four from Mayo - have joined forces for a new book combining scientific research with local knowledge that gives farmers and others practical tips on how to create a more sustainable future, while protecting land and nature.

At a time of great challenge and uncertainty for farm families, The Farming For Nature Handbook is a practical guide to protecting and restoring nature.

Published by Dingle Publishing, it will be launched on November 28, costs €30, and is available to order at https://www.farmingfornature.ie/.

With contributions from more than 50 Irish farmers, the book also shares farmers’ experiences of how working with nature can help reduce costs and improve incomes.

The four Mayo farmers are Aoife Reilly, Colm Gavin, Fergal Ó Cuinneagáin and Sinead Moran.

While there is widespread awareness of the environmental damage caused by poor farming practices, this book, in contrast, attempts to highlight the positive ways farmers can sustain and enhance our natural environment, and benefit from the results.

It is hoped The Farming For Nature Handbook will become the essential guide to caring profitably for our land.

The book was inspired by regular requests to the non-profit Farming For Nature project from landowners, farmers, smallholders and growers wanting to learn how best to manage their land, big or small, in a way that enhances habitats, protects profits, and safeguards our natural environment and rural communities.

The Farming For Nature project was set up to support, encourage and inspire farmers who farm, or who wish to farm, in a way that will improve the natural health of our countryside.

A small sample of the Mayo farmers’ tips, advice and expertise included in the book includes:

"It's incredibly interesting to explore the potential of different cover crops. We usually refer to them as green manures, as they fertilise the soil as well as protecting it. We have short-term green manures, long-term green manures for rest periods, quick turnaround green manures and late establishing green manures.” - Aoife Reilly, market gardener from Claremorris.

“Get an awareness of the species on your land: There is a lot of information out there on what is growing and living on your land. Get to know them and what suits them. This was the biggest eye opener for me. It gave me a new value on my land. What you are producing has so many different values.” - Colm Gavin, sheep farmer from Leenane.

“I always had a dream to farm a plot of land with corncrake. In 2012, I bought 25 acres of traditional hay meadow with an area of fen in north-west Mayo, this was the nearest area of land to me that had a viable population of corncrake. Corncrake chicks have been observed to hatch as late as September 1st, so it is essential that the mowing of meadows does not occur during these times, otherwise chicks can be killed.Unfortunately, most Irish grassland is now mowed early in the year, which is the main reason for corncrake decline.” - Feargal Ó Cuinneagáin, grassland/tilage farmer, from Termoncarragh.

“We once had an ecologist out on the farm to survey our old stone walls for biodiversity. He ended up finding even more life in the middle of the meadow than along the rich stone walls: from grasshoppers to dragonflies and meadow pipits to hares. Diversity begets diversity. Diverse pasture is a win-win-win for people, place and planet.” - Sinead Moran, dairy farmer, from Ballyhaunis.

The Farming For Nature Handbook shares tips for a better farming future and shows how to manage land in a way that enhances habitats, increases wildlife and harnesses natural processes while protecting livelihoods, food security and profiles. It is not just targeted at farmers but is for anyone who wants to grow, garden and gather better.

The book was conceived and developed by Brigid Barry, researched and mainly written by conservation ecologist Dr. Emma Hart on behalf of Farming For Nature and co-edited by Dr. Brendan Dunford of the Burrenbeo Trust. It is beautifully illustrated with watercolours and sketches by farmer and artist Clive Bright as well as digital images by scientific illustrator William Helps.

The book has been described by President of Ireland Michael D Higgins as “a timely and essential contribution to the on-going discourse on how we, as a society, must respond to some of the most pressing challenges of our time”.

The book was supported financially by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Lifes2Good Foundation.