It is vitally important that the sheep are kept on the hill, IFA presidential hopeful Angus Woods told the Irish Farmers Journal Around the Editor’s Table debate on Friday night.
“I can remember as a young fella going across the Wicklow Gap there, sure the sheep were lying all over the place up there.
“We’re now seeing a scenario where the heather on the hills is getting out of hand and you’ve got the fires, the risk of fire. So we need to keep the hills properly stocked,” he said.
It’s a great way of getting into farming because you can build numbers within sheep relatively efficiently and you get a return back around quickly
He said strong marketing was needed for hill lamb.
“The marketing for that hill lamb has diminished in recent years. We need proper marketing of that, we need to try and maximise the value of it.
“There’s great potential when you’re cross-breeding from the hill sheep to produce top-quality lowland breeding ewes as well. I’m not sure the two sectors are completely running in different lines. I think there’s a real opportunity to align them very well. It’s a vital sector for Irish farming.”
He said the sheep sector is quite important on the lowlands too.
“It’s a very important sector for young farmers. It’s a great way of getting into farming because you can build numbers within sheep relatively efficiently and you get a return back around quickly.
“CAP funding is vitally important. Traditionally, sheep farmers would have come off second best when it came to CAP funding because a lot of the CAP funding was routed through the beef sector.
“CAP funding is critical coupled with the environmental aspect of it as well.”
Specialised
John Coughlan said both hill and lowland sheep sectors are very much aligned together and need to be.
“There is no question but the hill sheep sector is a very specialised sector in Irish society in what it does.
“We’ve seen it in the past, when the hills were destocked, we see them being taken over by heather, we see these massive fires taking place. As I always say, the hill sheep and the suckler cow are specific, especially to the west of Ireland and the hill areas. They need to be protected more.
“We need to guarantee an income for those farmers but we also need to guarantee a market for what they’re doing, because no farmer wants to have animals that don’t have a proper market.
“It is a premium product that we do have to sell as a premium product,” he said.
Payment of €30/ewe
Tim Cullinan said the sheep sector is not going to survive without a payment.
“I think we do need something in the region of €30 per ewe for the highland and the lowland, but we do need an environmental payment to keep sheep on the hills.
“We saw what happened in the past when the sheep [came off] the hills, we were going back to the heather and trees starting to grow on the hills.
“I think it’s critical that the sheep are kept on the highlands and that there is a proper payment for sheep farmers because they’re doing a service to the country. They’re keeping the hills open and they’re keeping people living in rural Ireland which is critical.”
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It is vitally important that the sheep are kept on the hill, IFA presidential hopeful Angus Woods told the Irish Farmers Journal Around the Editor’s Table debate on Friday night.
“I can remember as a young fella going across the Wicklow Gap there, sure the sheep were lying all over the place up there.
“We’re now seeing a scenario where the heather on the hills is getting out of hand and you’ve got the fires, the risk of fire. So we need to keep the hills properly stocked,” he said.
It’s a great way of getting into farming because you can build numbers within sheep relatively efficiently and you get a return back around quickly
He said strong marketing was needed for hill lamb.
“The marketing for that hill lamb has diminished in recent years. We need proper marketing of that, we need to try and maximise the value of it.
“There’s great potential when you’re cross-breeding from the hill sheep to produce top-quality lowland breeding ewes as well. I’m not sure the two sectors are completely running in different lines. I think there’s a real opportunity to align them very well. It’s a vital sector for Irish farming.”
He said the sheep sector is quite important on the lowlands too.
“It’s a very important sector for young farmers. It’s a great way of getting into farming because you can build numbers within sheep relatively efficiently and you get a return back around quickly.
“CAP funding is vitally important. Traditionally, sheep farmers would have come off second best when it came to CAP funding because a lot of the CAP funding was routed through the beef sector.
“CAP funding is critical coupled with the environmental aspect of it as well.”
Specialised
John Coughlan said both hill and lowland sheep sectors are very much aligned together and need to be.
“There is no question but the hill sheep sector is a very specialised sector in Irish society in what it does.
“We’ve seen it in the past, when the hills were destocked, we see them being taken over by heather, we see these massive fires taking place. As I always say, the hill sheep and the suckler cow are specific, especially to the west of Ireland and the hill areas. They need to be protected more.
“We need to guarantee an income for those farmers but we also need to guarantee a market for what they’re doing, because no farmer wants to have animals that don’t have a proper market.
“It is a premium product that we do have to sell as a premium product,” he said.
Payment of €30/ewe
Tim Cullinan said the sheep sector is not going to survive without a payment.
“I think we do need something in the region of €30 per ewe for the highland and the lowland, but we do need an environmental payment to keep sheep on the hills.
“We saw what happened in the past when the sheep [came off] the hills, we were going back to the heather and trees starting to grow on the hills.
“I think it’s critical that the sheep are kept on the highlands and that there is a proper payment for sheep farmers because they’re doing a service to the country. They’re keeping the hills open and they’re keeping people living in rural Ireland which is critical.”
Read more
IFA presidential debate: the candidates on 10 key farming questions
IFA presidential debate: what would the candidates do to tackle TB?
Watch back: IFA candidates take part in Irish Farmers Journal debate
Paddy Power reveals favourite for IFA election
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