DEAR EDITOR: On the question of ACRES scorecards possibly not being submitted by the end of August, I have been wondering, would it be practicable for those farmers who are tech-savvy enough to take geotagged photos to submit those, either to their farm advisers or the DAFM directly, to help the process along?

Since we received the beautifully produced and entirely hands-on Farmland Plant Identification Key guidebook some weeks ago (pretty much towards the start of flowering season), I’ve spent some happy hours walking around our farm and recording present plant species on the Flora Incognita app. This free app is part of the European Citizen Science project, and it is very easy to use.

After receipt of the identification key, my main concern was: how an adviser could possibly locate and identify plants that flower in May or June, if they only get around to scoring a farm in late August?

Isn’t the failure to identify positive indicator plants – which would give farms a higher score if they were detected – unfair to farmers, since it negatively impacts their ACRES payments? Could the DAFM’s own AgriSnap app be used to lighten this burden for advisers?

The guidebook itself stresses that “positive indicator plants are used to rapidly assess if grassland is in ‘good’ condition; the plants themselves are not good or bad”. However, with a view to maximising their score, would a farmer not be forgiven for eradicating “Negative” Indicator Plants from their land? Whilst I’m in no way advocating the cultivation of ragwort, docks and nettles, are they not of value to the Irish ecosystem too?

Ecosystem

Has the DAFM spared any thought for the strikingly beautiful Cinnabar Moth, whose caterpillars are entirely dependent on ragwort and can quickly strip entire patches of the plant clean? And what about the Dock Beetle, the little, green-golden predator known to all farmers?

Nettles, too, are the only source of nutrition for the larvae of many of Ireland’s moths and butterflies, such as the spectacular Peacock, the Red Admiral, Painted Lady and more.

What will happen to these and other insects if their host plants are eradicated thanks to ACRES? Surely, this cannot be the intention of the powers that be.