The decent weather was so welcome as the calving and lambing comes to a close in some parts of the country. After months of vigilance and long, hard working hours, it’s as important now as it was at the start of the season to take extra care around calving animals. Safe handling facilities are essential when calving cows. A calving gate and clean calving pens guarantee a safe working environment. It is very important to remain vigilant and keep safety the top priority – particularly at busy times on farms.

The latest figures from the HSA show that six people have lost their lives on Irish farms this year. I am so conscious that when I talk about a farm death, that I am talking about a loved one that has been taken from a family through tragic circumstances.

As farmers, we all know the dangers and pressures of working on a farm and know too well that none of us are immune to an accident. I don’t know how many times I have been told by friends of near misses and lucky escapes. There will always be accidents but it is so important that before every task, we stop and think about the risks and check if there is a safer way to do it.

As we all know, there have been huge changes in farming over the years, but farming traditionally was a social practice, providing full and seasonal employment for local people, some with limited ability who would have had little chance of finding work elsewhere.

That social element of farming is being reinvented through social farming, which offers people who avail of services including mental health, learning/intellectual disability, and other aspects of care supports to engage in farming activities in rural Ireland. Social farming has been shown to increase self-esteem and confidence as well as improve health and wellbeing of the people involved.

Social farming network

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has funded two projects – one of which will establish and develop a national social farming network to deliver social farming across the country. Leitrim Development Company (LDC) will manage this collaborative network to bring together stakeholders from both agriculture and the health and social care sectors through four regional hubs in Leitrim, Mayo, Limerick and Waterford. I would like to wish the four regional hubs the best as they start to train interested farm families and build the network.

As May fast approaches, the IFA will be organising Let’s Talk and Walk events for the fifth year as part of the Green Ribbon campaign. This is a month long national campaign to get people to talk about mental health. It aims to break the stigma of silence associated with mental health, one conversation at a time.

These walks will take place each Sunday throughout the month of May so keep an eye out for posters locally and please support the walks and this very important cause.

I recently met with a lovely group of ladies that meet every Friday as part of the Monivea Active Age Group. They arrange different activities and speakers to come to talk with them. They asked me to speak on the Fair Deal (or the not so fair deal) Scheme. Such groups are so important in rural Ireland to keep people engaged and activated in the community.