I see a 687ac farm in south west Mayo has come on the market lately. It will be familiar to sheep farmers as the Teagasc Leenane hill farm. It was used as a demonstration farm for 20 years until 2011, when the State agency decided not to renew the lease. It has been converted to organic in the meantime.

Given the State has been active in the land market in the locality recent years, I wonder if they’ll open the wallet again?

And if they do I wonder will it be offered to Teagasc to develop their own hill-sheep research given the growing importance of upland farming and carbon sequestration.

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INHFA hits out at State's upland 'rewilding' as no hill research farm in place