Live exports set sail

A boat load of heifers sets sail from Ireland in February bound for Turkey. The cattle were loaded under the supervision of representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and were loaded by Quinn International Livestock at the port of Waterford. The boat carried 1,900 breeding heifers and 55 pedigree breeding bulls. \ Philip Doyle

Farmer writer CJ Stander

With the Six Nations about to kick off, the Irish Farmers Journal sat down with Munster and Ireland forward and South African farmer CJ Stander to find out about his farming and rugby life. CJ's family milk 450 cows and also grow vegetables between George and Port Elizabeth in South Africa. CJ was photographed on the Cagney family farm in Co Limerick. \ Philip Doyle

Save Our Sucklers

With beef prices and incomes at an all-time low last spring, the Irish Farmers Journal launched its Save Our Sucklers campaign to gather signatures for an open letter to European Commissioners Phil Hogan and Cecilia Malmström, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed. The campaign involved a series of suckler demonstrations in marts around the country. Pictured here is the Save Our Sucklers event in Carndonagh Mart, Co Donegal. \ Clive Wasson

Farm safety day in Granard Mart

Sixth class children from every school in the north Longford area took part in a special farm safety event, targeting young children in Granard Mart and on site at Kiernan Milling's feed mill. The event was sponsored by Longford County Council, FBD Insurance, Granard Mart and Kiernan Milling. It was aimed at children to promote the importance of farm safety and possible dangers when out and about on the farm. \ Lorraine Teevan

FTMTA Grass and Muck event

The FTMTA held its Grass and Muck event in Gurteen Agricultural College, Co Tipperary, again this year. The event always attracts a large crowd of machinery enthusiasts from around the country and almost 12,000 spectators attended to view the impressive range of machinery, technology and engineering on show. Pictured is Michael Coffey from Drombanna and Josh Ryan from Ballysimon, Co Limerick, enjoying their day out. \ Donal O'Leary

A dual harvest in Co Tipperary

The weather woes of 2018 led to a lot of bizarre events, including for Tipperary farmer John C Byrne. John is a tillage and beef farmer near Clonmel and for the first time ever found himself cutting his silage and sowing spring barley in the adjacent field, due to the poor spring and delay in sowing. John grows Diageo spring barley, huskey oats and Paulsen spring barley. \ Philip Doyle

The heatwave takes hold in Cork

Firefighter Donna Murphy, based in Mallow fire station, dosing down a field of straw after it went on fire near Doneraile, Co Cork. The alarm was raised at 1.35pm and fire crews from Mallow station were on the scene in 15 minutes, where they were confronted with 50 acres of straw burning out of control. With local houses under threat, the firefighters spent over two hours getting control the fire and making it safe, using two fire trucks and two water tankers. The fire also burned through the ditches into a field of wheat but the crew managed it save the crop from igniting. It is believed the fire started when a bale caught fire inside a baler. \ Donal O'Leary

The fodder crisis hits

As temperatures began to rise and fodder supplies began to run low, the fodder crisis took hold and farmers were left with empty silage pits. Co-ops had to scramble to look overseas to source fodder and within days, a consignment of Alfalfa arrived into Rosslare Port. \ Mary Browne

This load of Alfalfa was ordered by Glanbia and was delivered to the Glanbia yard in Glenmore, Co Kilkenny. Pictured is farmer Eamon Fitzpatrick, branch manager Anthony O'Shea, Glanbia manager Michael Ryan, farmer Martin Delahunty and branch manager Michael Ryan. To manage the load of silage along with a trailor of imported Alfalfa from Spain, local farmer Nicolas Kelly and New Holland dealers Murphy Motors donated the use of machinery with telescopic loaders. \ Philip Doyle

The Ploughing gets cancelled

Storm Ali caused havoc when it made landfall on day two of the Ploughing back in September. Stands, marquees and tents were all torn down and exhibititors were left picking up the remains of their stands. However, after some team work, the majority of stands were reassembeled and the event opened again on Thursday morning for the thousands of visitors. \ Barry Cronin