On page 34, our contributor Ray O’ Foghlú very expertly details the journey or more specifically how farm support has allowed a gap develop between those commercial, productive farmers featured on page 28 and 29, and those gathering mountain sheep near Drumshanbo.

Much of the Leitrim landscape offers little hope of 15 tonnes of grass, but it is heaped in biodiversity and carbon storage.

The Cork farmers visited are also rich in biodiversity but it runs alongside a profitable, commercial operation. The key question is in ten years’ time who will be driving the car and box reversed in off the road near Drumshanbo while the dog gathers the mountain sheep? Without active management, the strongest of the plant species will take over our hills and wetlands. Let’s not give up the game to the Rhododendron.

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