DEAR SIR

I read with great interest Tommy Moyles’ article in the Irish Farmers Journal dated 28 April 2018 in which he trotting out the three Rs of farm schemes. I have to give full marks to Tommy for his suggestions of joined-up thinking.

I have always heard of the brain drain from rural Ireland to the urban areas and the civil service cosy offices. It has become quite obvious on many occasions that it did not include a commonsense drain and thank God for that. It has been well documented that 97% of suckler herds cannot stand alone and make a profit. It is a well-known fact that most suckler herds are propped up by the cheque in the post. Regretfully, in small and fragmented parcels of land, to even try to come within sight of the average industrial wage, suckler farmers are supplementing their farm income with State pensions, off-farm employment, either full-time or part-time, rural tourism and the likes.

We are bombarded daily about health and safety and rightly so but this extra task of rounding up our bovines to tag them for the BDGP scheme after they have been let out to grass beggars belief.

Could the powers that be send those tags out earlier when stock are housed? Better still, instead of one tag for BVD and one passenger tag, replace the passenger tag with BDGP sampling. This, I think, would replace brains with common sense.

Thank God the brain drain from rural Ireland did not turn into a “Common Sense” drain and that we have people of the calibre of Tommy Moyles still living among us in rural west Cork and writing about everyday challenges. I conclude with two wishes:

1. That Tommy Moyles will continue to write as he does with “common sense”.

2. That civil servants would take time to read Tommy’s article and put into practice some of its contents.