Half of Ireland’s young farmers have said they would be happy to allow wind turbines to be developed on their land. Some 49.5% of respondents indicated that they would embrace this sustainable source of electricity which has become such a contentious issue recently.

Coinciding with this, the survey shows that they view “protecting the environment from any negative impact of farming” as the most important aspect of environmental protection schemes. Secondary to this is their value in improving the image of Irish food as a sustainable source of income. Of lesser importance to young farmers is the additional source of income from environmental protection schemes.

Trade agreement

A total of 54% of respondents thought that a trade deal between the EU and the US would be beneficial for Irish agriculture. Some 17% would view a trade agreement as “bad for Irish agriculture”.

The young farmer survey is conducted by Macra na Feirme on an annual basis. Of the 295 respondents, 225 were male. One-third of respondents were full-time farmers and another third were part-time farmers, while 6.3% were farm employees and 17.6% were students of agriculture.

In a sector-by-sector breakdown, 46% were beef farmers, 21% dairy, 6% tillage and 1% pigs.