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Suckler cow and her calf.
Suckler cow and her calf.
A suckler cow pictured with her young calf. The cow would typically give birth (calve) in the Spring and her calf would suckle her milk until the autumn when he or she would be weaned onto a diet of grass and concentrates. The cows are bred to terminal beef sires selected for their carcase growth rate and conformation. The most popular breeds used in the beef cow herd are Charolais, followed by Limousin, Angus, Belgian Blue and Hereford.
Copyright Irish Farmers Journal
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Pigs
Pigs
Pigs farmed for meat are mainly of the breeds Large White and the Landrace. More than half of all pigs are found in just four counties - Cork, Cavan, Tipperary and Waterford. Females that have had one or two litters are called sows. A male is called a boar, whilst a newborn is called a piglet. A group of piglets is called a litter. The meat from pigs is called pork, while cured pig meat is called bacon.
Copyright Irish Farmers Journal
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Countryside
Countryside
The spring barley harvest pictured at Redcross in Co Wicklow, with typical mixed farming countryside and the Irish Sea in the background. Part of the visual appeal of Ireland is that the agricultural land is farmed by an estimated 139,829 family farms. Two thirds of Ireland’s farms are less than 30 hectares in size. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) Farm Structure Survey in 2007 reported an average farm size of 32.3 hectares (75 acres) (www.cso.ie). The Farm Structures Survey involved a sample size of 55,000 farms and was also undertaken in 1991 and 2000. Fresh data on farm sizes will emerge in late 2012 when the full results of the 2010 Census of Agriculture are published.
Copyright Irish Farmers Journal
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Beef calves from a dairy herd.
Beef calves from a dairy herd.
Calves of a beef breed from the dairy herd are an important source of raw materials for the Irish beef industry. Dairy herds breed their best animals to dairy breeds in order to provide replacements, but around 30% of the national dairy herd is mated to a beef sire in order to increase the value of the offspring. Angus and Hereford, which are noted for their ease of calving, are the most popular beef breeds for use in the dairy herd.
Copyright Irish Farmers Journal
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National ploughing championships
National ploughing championships
The National Ploughing Championships (www.npa.ie) take place each year in late September. It has grown into the largest event on the Irish farming calendar. Taking place over three days, the event is about far more than ploughing, with thousands of trade stands, demonstrations and retail outlets aimed at the farming community. The event takes place across a site running to hundreds of acres for the ploughing competitions, car parks and exhibitors. One of the attractions of the event is that it moves around the country to different locations. In 2011, an estimated 200,000 people attended over the three days in Athy, Co Kildare.
Copyright Irish Farmers Journal
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Turning the soil
Turning the soil
The soil of Ireland is an immensely valuable, and finite, national resource, which forms and evolves slowly over very long periods of time. It is the basis for almost all farming activity. Soil is a biologically active, complex mixture of weathered minerals, organic matter, organisms, air and water that provides the foundation for life in terrestrial ecosystems. The general consensus is that soil quality in Ireland is good. Irish farmers have a major responsibility to nurture and protect this valuable resource for future generations.
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A Charolais calf
A Charolais calf
Charolais cattle are the most popular beef breed in Ireland – (www.icbf.com). They originate in the Massif Central region of France, with the first imports to Ireland in 1969. Today, there are over 3,000 breeders of pedigree Charolais cattle in Ireland (www.charolais.ie). Pure bred or pedigree Charolais cattle have a distinctive white coat, although when crossed with other breeds they can be seen in various shades of grey or white. Their main attributes are fast growth, docility and ability to thrive when grazing or when fed intensively indoors.
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Cattle mart
Cattle mart
Livestock marts are located throughout Ireland and are used as trading centres where regular - mostly weekly – live auctions of livestock take place. The majority of marts are owned by farmer co-operatives (www.icos.ie), while some are privately run businesses. In 2010, a total of 1.68million livestock sales through marts were recorded, with the peak month, October, accounting for 249,000. Animals are sold by public auction, with the video showing a typical sale day at Kilkenny mart in autumn 2011.
Copyright Irish Farmers Journal
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Laying hens
Laying hens
Poultry is the name given to birds that provide us with meat or eggs. The chicken, the turkey, the duck and the goose are the birds most commonly kept by farmers in Ireland. A female chicken is called a hen and a newborn chicken is called a chick. A male chicken is called a cock or a rooster and a young male chicken is called a cockerel. Chickens live in large groups called flocks.
Copyright Irish Farmers Journal
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Pat O’ Keeffe, author of the Farming in Ireland section
Pat O’ Keeffe, author of the Farming in Ireland section
Pat O’ Keeffe is the news editor and deputy editor of the Irish Farmers Journal.