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00:00Hello and welcome to Ear to the Ground.
00:02This week on the programme, I'll be bringing you a reminder
00:05from this summer on a glorious day for harvesting.
00:08This year has kind of been perfect, like we had rain when we needed it
00:11and we got sunshine when we needed it as well.
00:13Ella is on the trail of one of Ireland's most deadly invasive species.
00:17Lurg, mink.
00:18So you just have to go quite a pace to keep up with them.
00:21And Dara spends a day with an alpaca farmer in County Wicklow.
00:25Good girl! Oh!
00:30It's the end of July on one of the hottest days of the year
00:51and the Hobson farm in Warrenstown in County Meath
00:54is gearing up for the start of the harvest season.
00:57Four generations off the family have made their livelihood growing crops.
01:02David, good morning.
01:03Good morning, how are you?
01:04Not too bad.
01:05David Hobson runs this large scale operation with his brother Robert
01:09and his dad John.
01:10Real busy time of year for you.
01:12Real busy time of year for us and the busiest period
01:15is about to start in the next two or three weeks.
01:17As well as growing wheat, barley, oats, oilseed rape and other crops
01:22on around 1800 acres, the Hobsons also have a grain drying and storage business.
01:28But before any harvesting can happen, a clean up operation has to be carried out on the combine.
01:34In scorching weather like this, fires are an all too real risk.
01:39So this is the dusty, chaffy material that could potentially catch fire?
01:43Yeah.
01:44It's getting very dry.
01:45It wouldn't take a whole lot to catch spark.
01:47Your working machines have very high hydraulic pressures.
01:49You know, they're a big engine and any small thing can go wrong.
01:53So we just have to be very vigilant in this sort of weather.
01:55A 30-acre field of winter barley is first on the list for harvest.
02:00All the signs are that they have caught it in peak condition.
02:04You can hear the crackle in the crop as well.
02:07That's how you know it's nearly ready?
02:09Yeah, I know it's nearly ready.
02:11Grains are rock hard with a bite and yeah, it looks good to go.
02:16We have such a small narrow window here in Ireland.
02:19When the crop comes ripe, you really have like a week before you start losing heads
02:24and that's your yield dropping.
02:26So every head that you lose, I mean, that's money gone.
02:30Yeah, absolutely.
02:31We had a few difficult years, 23 and 24.
02:35The weather was very extreme with, you know, endless rain.
02:39This year has kind of been perfect for us to get, you know, decent crops.
02:43Like we had rain when we needed it and we got sunshine when we needed it as well.
02:46So things are looking good.
02:48I can see a smile on your face so I can, yeah.
02:51Before the combine can be let loose, the moisture content of the grain
02:55must be analysed.
02:57Once the reading is anywhere between 15 and 20%, you're generally good to go.
03:03Give it a good rub around.
03:05Jesus Christ, isn't it?
03:07It's fantastic sodas.
03:08Yeah.
03:13So, power it up.
03:14Here we go.
03:1615.4.
03:17Good enough for harvesting?
03:19Erm, yeah.
03:20Oh, yeah.
03:21Yeah, we're going to cut away.
03:22Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:23Because in the next hour, it's going to be below that and it could get too dry.
03:28So, we get going now.
03:35David studied at University College Dublin, completing a PhD in crop and soil health.
03:41He then worked for two years in the grain buying sector before making the decision to come home to Warrenstown.
03:48We always knew that, you know, for us to be able to work the thing well and to be able to expand and to grow our business, we would have to be here.
03:56It's a team, really.
03:57No more gallivanting around.
03:59Time to come home and get to work.
04:00No more gallivanting around, yeah.
04:02Time to get home and get to work, yeah.
04:03But working on this farm is a little different to most.
04:08Something that David believes has positively shaped his approach to the business and life.
04:14I grew up with deaf parents.
04:17You don't really think of it because you're growing up with it, but we struggled a lot.
04:21Like, a lot of challenges growing up.
04:24Communication was always a difficult thing.
04:27Miscommunication.
04:28We always had to step in whenever there was a problem.
04:31Legal stuff, taxation, everything you can think of always involved myself or one of my siblings.
04:40But we afforded a very good life.
04:43They couldn't have done more for us as kids.
04:45Like, we had a really good childhood.
04:48We always wanted to do our best for our parents, like, because they did so well for us.
04:53With your dad's situation, it's almost thrusted you into a management position a lot earlier than a lot of other young fathers.
05:00A lot of other young farmers of your age?
05:02Yeah, I'd say that's probably one of the advantages is when things aren't working.
05:07You know they're not working at an early age.
05:09Trying to figure out how, why things are the way they are.
05:12Question them and change them and seeing what works best for us.
05:17Despite the fact that 2025 has been a bumper year for grain growers, overall the tillage sector is not in a good place.
05:25The barley being harvested here today, like nearly all grain grown in Ireland, is destined for animal feed.
05:32But prices continue to come under extreme pressure from cheap imports of feedstock from outside the EU.
05:39Commodities, they're difficult, like, and the sector is in a difficult place, a precarious place.
05:46We can't keep just growing feed materials with no added value.
05:50I think the future has to be where we look to add value to what we're growing here.
05:55The Hobsons started their grain drying and storage venture in 2017.
06:01Every year, they dry about 20,000 tonnes of crops, their own, but also those of other farmers.
06:08It means increased revenue for the business.
06:11It's definitely given us a little bit more flexibility in terms of selling power, also comfort.
06:16Like, we know when we want to sell, it's opened a few more doors, I suppose, with adding value to other markets.
06:22Yeah, it's definitely helped us a lot in the last few years.
06:26While the barley moisture reading taken in the field gives a good approximation,
06:31a more accurate test is vital to determine exactly how much drying time will be required.
06:37And the lower the moisture it is, the less you have to dry it?
06:41Yes, exactly.
06:42So the harvest kitchen right now, that's doing the drying for us.
06:45It's a rare enough event in Ireland.
06:47We usually have very wet harvests.
06:49The longer the hot spell continues, the moistures are going to continue to drop.
06:53And I suppose the other side of the story is farmers don't want to be bringing in 12% barley
06:58because the weight loss can be significant across the field.
07:01So there's a real sweet spot, and right now we're in that sweet spot here.
07:05The barley is coming in at exactly the right quality and right moisture that we wanted at.
07:11The barley harvested this morning can now go to be dried.
07:16It's an energy-hungry process, but after all that welcome sunshine,
07:21it will take less time, meaning a valuable saving.
07:26And in this sector, particularly at the moment, that's welcome.
07:32It's a very competitive industry we're in, you know, the heartland here of grain growing.
07:37So we're just trying to hold our own.
07:40In a year like this, you could have potentially five tonne an acre of wheat,
07:44over two tonne an acre of oilseed grape, four tonne an acre of barley.
07:47And like we really need to be producing those yields to stay viable
07:51because our grain prices are just so volatile.
07:54And having a facility like this basically is like a hedge in effect.
07:57We're hedging against the volatility by having a facility like this.
08:00That's it for part one. Coming up after the break,
08:07Ella is on the trail of one of Ireland's most deadly invasive species.
08:11We'll put the cover onto the trap just to calm the mink.
08:14And Dara spends the day with an alpaca farmer in County Wicklow.
08:17Whether plant or animal, invasive species can put huge pressure on our native wildlife.
08:34One of the most troublesome is the American mink.
08:38Since escaping from fur farms back in the 1950s, mink have spread right across the country.
08:44This morning, I'm by the shores of Loch Rea in West Meath to meet Owen Murphy and Mark Craven,
08:52who are involved in a new project, the Midlands Mink Eradication Programme.
08:58We have a series of traps out around the countryside trying to catch mink,
09:01and they're all censored. So we know immediately as soon as they close.
09:05So one of them at this location has gone off last night.
09:07So we're going to go down and check it.
09:09And Mark, your job is to, as they say, dispatch, if it is a mink dispatch,
09:13dispatch the mink, which means you're going to kill the mink.
09:15That's right, yeah. It's a live catch trap and we have to attempt to it straight away
09:18and remove the mink and dispatch it humanely.
09:22Mink are a major threat to Ireland's ground nesting birds,
09:26taking not only the eggs, but often the adult birds as well.
09:30This EU-funded pilot project brings together the Breeding Waders European Innovation Partnership
09:37and the National Association of Regional Game Councils,
09:40with support from the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
09:44And I suppose mink, watery animal that you find in?
09:47Yeah, they're semi-aquatic, so they spend all their lives really somewhere around watercourses.
09:52The project spans more than two and a half thousand square kilometres,
09:57an area that includes some of Ireland's most important breeding grounds for waders like the Curlew and the Snipe.
10:06600 sensor-equipped traps will be placed in spots where mink activity is suspected.
10:13I can see the little sensor on the front there, so that is what is communicating with your phone?
10:17Yeah. So this is our trap.
10:19Ah, yeah.
10:20So when we press on the trap, it'll tell us where it is, when it's gone off.
10:26So there's something in there, because I can see there's something in there.
10:28You can see it moving. You're good, I see.
10:30What happens next?
10:31What we do is we will cover the trap over to reduce stress levels on the mink.
10:35We will remove the sensor and we'll bring away the mink to the dispatch somewhere safe.
10:40OK, we have a mink.
10:42Mark is an experienced gun club member, and he's taken part in mink control work before,
10:48so he knows these animals very well.
10:52This project is the largest of its kind ever undertaken in Ireland,
10:57and it will depend heavily on community involvement,
11:00both in reporting mink sightings and dealing with the captured animals.
11:05We'll put the cover onto the trap just to calm the mink.
11:08And you heard the high-pitched screech.
11:10That's a defence mechanism when somebody gets close to it.
11:14Dan Curley is chairperson of the National Association of Regional Game Councils.
11:20We have been involved in mink control for probably 40 years at this stage,
11:24and part of the conservation is to try and get them birds to breed as successfully as possible,
11:28and the mink is a huge impediment to that.
11:31The damage is done around the breeding cycle when they're nesting, you know,
11:34and if a bird is put off our nest or the egg's taken,
11:37that bird is barren for that year almost certainly, you know, and that's a cycle gone.
11:41And some of them are quite short-lived birds, so they have to breed fairly regularly to keep the numbers anywhere right, you know.
11:48We're moving the mink to a secure, semi-enclosed area so that Mark can dispose of it.
11:59This is not pretty work, but it is vital if the project is to succeed.
12:05Many of the birds that nest on the ground here are red-listed, and their populations are in severe decline.
12:14A recent report shows that they are 15 times more likely to be in decline than other European bird species.
12:26We have choices. Do we want ground-nesting birds in some areas that we can control populations of predators, such as mink?
12:32Or do we want predators everywhere and no ground-nesting birds?
12:35And they are the hard decisions that we need to make, because we know our land use has changed so much over the last 50 to 60 years
12:42that these birds are doing really, really badly.
12:45Owen is a wildlife management specialist and the driving force behind this project.
12:52He's bringing me to another location where mink have been seen, Carriky Nocton Bog.
12:57And this time, we're joined by another member of the team.
13:01Essential to this job is what's in the back of your car.
13:04Yeah, this is Larg. So Larg is a conservation detection dog.
13:09He's a Labrador retriever, and he's been trained to detect mink.
13:15When you're working in large, wide-open landscapes, it's very, very hard for a human to know if there are a mink there or isn't there a mink.
13:19Yeah.
13:20So to be able to focus where we put down our trap, so our trap is in the best possible location to catch a mink, this lad's nose is what it's all about.
13:28Also with us are Project Data Analyst Elena Bakura and a new volunteer, Daniel Connell.
13:34Hi, Daniel. How are you?
13:36So Daniel has started yesterday and will be working, setting some traps or checking some traps for us.
13:40So we'll be joined by Mark, who will do that. And we have Elena here who will go through the mapping and the data collection aspect of it.
13:45The data collection is everything.
13:47Well, it's hugely important. I mean, if you put down a trap and then you don't know where it is and you don't know whether it was rebated, all these things, you know, the whole program would quickly fall asunder.
13:54So the data collection is massively important.
13:57Now it is Larg's turn to get to work.
14:00Larg, mink.
14:01So you just have to go quite a pace to keep up with them.
14:08Larg is searching an area where Owen has received a report of a sighting.
14:20So he's sniffing all the time, yeah?
14:23You see that? Mink, show me.
14:26And if we look at here, we can see the mink scat.
14:29Oh, my Lord.
14:31That's a very, very hard thing to find for me walking by.
14:34And that's the road, actually, the little laneway just here that we got to report.
14:38So our citizen science information was bang on.
14:41Mark, Elena and Daniel are on hand to set up the trap.
14:46There's a locking system on this trap and a double door.
14:49This three and a half year project is just getting started.
14:52A crucial part of its success will be attracting more volunteers like Daniel and encouraging members of the public to report any mink sightings.
15:03In college I studied a lot about invasive species, many different ones in Ireland, and learned a lot about American mink and how detrimental they are to Irish breeding water birds and wintering water birds.
15:15So I just kind of wanted to do my best.
15:19If we look at Europe, I can't think of any other EU country that you could eradicate mink from and say, well, they are now eradicated.
15:26Because if you eradicate them from France, they come in from Italy or they come in from Spain.
15:29So Ireland as an island nation, and it would have to be an all island effort.
15:34But technically we could.
15:36It would be a really, really sizable amount of work and would take resource.
15:40But if we can get the voluntary and citizen science model, it reduces the cost hugely.
15:46So then it is something that possibly is achievable into the future.
15:48A lot of people dream of starting a new life doing something completely different.
16:00But most of us never actually manage it because it does require a huge leap of faith that can be terrifying.
16:07But it's that terror mixed with excitement that inspires others.
16:13Like the farmer I'm about to meet here in Wicklow this morning.
16:16Joe Phelan is still something of a rarity in Ireland, an alpaca farmer.
16:22Hey Joe. Hello Dara. You're very welcome.
16:25He keeps a herd of 80 animals on 90 acres of land in Calloch Hill near Newtown Mount Kennedy.
16:31Hi guys.
16:32Janet Herman has worked here for the last five years, while Emily Norell, a veterinary student, is just helping out for the summer.
16:40Now Dara, before we go in here, we have to dip our feet. This is a biosecurity on the farm.
16:43Every time we go in and out of any field, we have to dip our feet.
16:47Keeping the animals healthy is paramount on this farm, but these Peruvian natives are actually very hardy.
16:54The first year I came here, I was busy, put jelters in around the place, and I deliberately went out in the first storm to see where they used them.
17:01Not a single one was being used. They prefer to be out in the open.
17:03Originally from Kerry, Joe spent most of his life in Dublin. A father of four, he worked for nearly 40 years in the banking sector.
17:13For me, the turning point really would have been back around 2014, you know, because at that stage, three of my kids left home at the one time.
17:22And it kind of was like a trigger. It kind of switched my thinking. And I had this idea that I didn't want to retire.
17:27And then I started thinking, well, what would I really like? You know, I liked the outdoors.
17:31I always had this desire to set up my own business, but wasn't brave enough.
17:36But Joe did take the leap in 2016.
17:40He initially invested in eight prize-winning females for breeding, which he sourced in the UK.
17:46He now has over 80 animals here.
17:50This is what we call our kind of maternity group now. So you'll see there's lots of adults and then lots of babies.
17:55So there's eight crea in here. So a baby alpaca is called a crea.
18:00There are two different types of alpacas. If you look at Daydream here, she has long, soft, dreadlock type fibre.
18:06And she's a sewerie alpaca. And the rest of the guys are all wakias, big, fluffy teddy bear-like alpacas.
18:12The difference between the two is that Daydream gets away with a haircut every two years. The others have to be shorn every year.
18:18The sale of this fibre is just one of the farm's income streams.
18:22As well as welcoming day-trippers, visitors can stay in renovated farm buildings and go on treks with the animals.
18:30There's also a gift shop stocked with all things alpaca.
18:35Joe did over two years of research before embarking on this venture, but no amount of research could prepare him for every aspect of rearing alpacas.
18:44The adjustment was quite big, and even still is, because I don't have a farming background really. I have experience on a farm for when I was small. So this is still a steep learning curve. You know, I'm trying to see how do I make the farm work and earn its keep.
19:00While alpacas are relatively easy to care for, they do have some special needs.
19:08Vitamin D injections are required every couple of months during the winter to make up for the lack of sunshine here.
19:14Today, one of the herd needs eye drops to treat an infection. Administering them doesn't come without risk.
19:25What I'm looking at is her gob.
19:27Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, you have to watch that. That's why I'm holding her. But I'm not really holding her.
19:31Well, see? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:32So she's a bit like mad. Oh, which way? I'm going to turn her this way because the wind is going this way.
19:37Good girl, classic. Oh, there you go. Good girl. Oh, well done.
19:44So we're just popping that ointment into inside her eye.
19:48Yeah, well done. There you go. Oh, well done. Good girl. Oh.
19:55But a far more serious disease has had a deadly impact on Joe's farm, bovine tuberculosis.
20:01In 2020, 17 infected animals had to be put down after contracting TB. In 2022, the disease struck again.
20:12Even now, talking to you kind of makes me feel a bit sick to the stomach.
20:16We lost three generations of studs. It destroyed our breeding aspect of our business.
20:22I'd say nearly destroyed your appetite for running the business.
20:29It did for a while and, you know, I just felt like walking away and selling the farm, you know.
20:34The breeding was to be a third of my business and I don't breed now anymore, so I only breed for myself.
20:41In the Irish market, some of these studs would have been worth 15,000, for example, you know, so really valuable animals.
20:4733 animals had to be destroyed as a result of the second infection.
20:53It was extremely difficult. I have no problem saying there was tears in my eyes, you know, putting someone, you know, down.
21:00It was really difficult.
21:02But despite these tough setbacks, Joe has managed to grow his business.
21:06The farm now has a turnover of roughly half a million euro a year.
21:11Now, Leo, you're not coming. Good boy.
21:13The loss of his breeding business led Joe to expand the agritourism aspect.
21:19He brings the alpacas to wedding parties, to schools and also provides them as therapeutic animals.
21:26Today, Joe is making one of his regular visits to Kilkool Lodge nursing home.
21:32His two alpacas, Paddy and Oscar, are also regulars here and so are well used to all the attention.
21:38Now, hello guys. How are we?
21:43If we try to rub them on the neck, they prefer rub on the neck.
21:46Oh, they're nice.
21:48That's it. Well done, guys. Well done.
21:50The alpacas are really, really calm. They're really chilled animals.
21:53The lambs are much bigger up here, you know, whereas the alpacas, they're not much bigger than this.
21:58It's not that often you'd have visitors like that here.
22:03No. No.
22:05But it's great for them.
22:07Children love.
22:09Children, our little granddaughters, love.
22:12And I always bring two because one keeps the other comforts, you know, rather than one.
22:17What did you make of them?
22:18Oh, they're really.
22:19They're nice now and they're shared.
22:21Yeah. You know?
22:22Yeah. They're very friendly as well, aren't they?
22:24They're very friendly, yeah.
22:25Yeah.
22:27So they're really good, aren't they?
22:28Oh, do you?
22:30My dad's fault.
22:32There's only one resident left to visit, but she's on the second floor.
22:36That's no bother to Paddy and Oscar.
22:38That's what you call arriving in style, isn't it?
22:43For Joe, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of his business.
22:47And despite the oftentimes difficult journey that he's been on, he's still very glad that he took the plunge.
22:53I remember being at a business network meeting and, you know, telling people who I was doing.
22:57I could hear people behind me laughing at me, you know, they thought it was such a ridiculous idea.
23:02But I've proven to everybody, including myself, that you can create a viable, sustainable business out of alpacas.
23:13That's it for this week's episode.
23:16Next week on the programme, tackling rural crime.
23:19Bringing dogs in that are trained to kill into a field full of pregnant sheep is a recipe for disaster.
23:24Macro stocks and fishermen in crisis.
23:27I've already taken a 60, 70% cut in the past 10 years.
23:31And now you want to cut me another 70%?
23:34We'll be left with little or nothing.
23:36And artificial intelligence transforming farming.
23:39Should be 115 days ago.
23:41There it is now on the screen.
23:43115.2 days.
23:44Don't forget that this programme will be repeated on Sunday at lunchtime after the farming weather.
23:51You can contact us on Facebook and follow us on X.
23:55And you can hear more farming stories on Countrywide this Saturday morning on RTÉ Radio 1.
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