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00:00Hello and welcome to Ear to the Ground and the final show of this year and with Christmas
00:06almost upon us, Ella is in Kilkenny playing elf to a farmer turned toy maker. How big an object
00:14can you scan? I could scan you if I wanted to scan you I suppose yeah. With the recent outbreak of
00:20Bluetongue in Northern Ireland, Stephen looks at the implications for Irish farming. I think we need
00:25to be really wary of the idea that potentially this virus has crossed the border. And I'll be
00:31taking a chilly dip off the coast of Wartford. There's a reason most people don't feel this
00:37on a Sunday morning. Before relaxing in a brand new off-farm venture.
00:55In just a week's time thousands of people across the country will be jumping into the sea for their
01:08annual Christmas swim before heading for one of the many mobile saunas that have opened up on almost
01:14every shoreline. But our story begins back in October in a milking parlour in Ardmore in County Waterford.
01:23It's a regular Sunday morning on the Keane family farm. Tony Keane and his son Jack are busy milking
01:32their 180 cow herd. So far so normal on your average Irish dairy farm. But next door there's
01:41something you wouldn't expect to find. A mobile sauna and hot tub. It's all to do with the business that
01:49Jack set up last July. So how long will it take to fill this? So it takes about half an hour to fill
01:56the hot tub. Then we'll get the fire lighting and it takes about two hours then to heat up the hot tub
02:02to have it ready for the first session. So the first session's at 12. So once we have a lighting by 10
02:07we'll be ready to go. Jack graduated in Ag Science from University College Cork in 2023
02:17before starting a job at the Chagas Advisory Office in Middleton.
02:20I learned a lot there but the office side of things wasn't really for me. I'd like being out in the open
02:28outdoors and stuff. So I went back for him and this year until April and then I decided to try something
02:34else out. Living so close to the sea and with an interest in health and fitness Jack settled
02:40pretty quickly on the idea of starting his sauna and hot tub venture. I kind of wanted my own little
02:47project that I could work on. I wanted something that I'm my own boss in some regard. So I decided
02:52to go down this route. I played GA and sports like that so I was kind of interested in recovery and
03:00there's loads of health benefits around it like just even for stress, mental health and all the rest
03:06of it like. I used to be going to saunas maybe every weekend, every second weekend myself. The fact that
03:12we're so close to the sea here as well I thought that that was just a good idea to go down that route.
03:17It's lovely down there so I was kind of looking into different saunas and all the rest of it and I saw
03:22that the mobile option was probably the easiest because if it didn't work out for me I could always
03:27set it on or move it that it wasn't fixed I wasn't kind of stuck with it. Jack purchased his hot tub
03:33and sauna from Lithuania at a cost of around 20 000 euros. Until it landed in the yard his father Tony
03:42didn't really know what to think. I actually thought he was joking the first time even the second time
03:48to be honest I thought he was joking. Maybe you still think it's a bit of a joke do you? Well it wouldn't be
03:53for me it wouldn't be what I'd think I wouldn't google it first thing in the morning when I'd get
03:57up yeah and um he had this idea and I said fine if you want to go for it go for us. Jack has two
04:05sisters and a younger brother but he's the one most interested in farming and the plan is that he will
04:10eventually take over here but Tony is still far from retiring and it's not easy stepping back from
04:17something you've worked hard at building up. It's hard to know it more than likely he will more than
04:22likely he will but that's his decision I won't stop him yeah but he's got to make it for himself.
04:29I'm only after arriving where I am very late yeah and you're going to hand it all to the next
04:34generation straight away I don't know I don't know if he shows enough interest then he's willing to take
04:41over yeah I'd say it is as well to step out of the way. Because it's difficult to have two bosses in the
04:46same yard isn't it and we wouldn't be the greatest two bosses to work together to be honest with you
04:51yeah no it's not that easy to hand something straight to a fella just even besides a good
04:58education he might not have enough suffering done yet yeah he has to earn it yeah yeah yeah
05:04I'll be doing my own suffering a little later on but first we have to get to today's location
05:13Jack mostly sets up at popular spots along the Waterford coast
05:19today we've only traveled a couple of miles down the road to the end of their farm
05:23at Ballyquin beach the Ballyquin mermaids have just been in for their daily dip
05:29and are ready for their Sunday treat the sauna is that part of the routine at this stage it's
05:35fabulous brings a whole other cohort of people in here young people and the young ones love it
05:42the younger people are really embracing the whole positivity you know and Jack is a young man himself
05:47all that age group are coming it's fantastic for them it really isn't then they're jumping into
05:51the sea below okay well I'm being told I have to first endure the ocean before I'm allowed the comfort
05:58of the sauna but you're heading that way and I'm heading this way yeah yeah and you've to embrace
06:02it not endurance okay well I'll do my best to embrace but it'll be a small short embrace okay
06:11as the mermaids head into the steamy warmth of the sauna I've stupidly agreed to brave the bitterly cold
06:18Celtic sea okay this is gorgeous and all that but uh it's actually flipping freezing so it's going to be
06:24short and sharp the sauna better be good
06:39oh my god yes there's a reason most people don't feel this on Sunday morning
06:54I surprised myself and lasted all of two minutes
07:00but not without the sense of achievement
07:04okay so Daniel Craig I may not be but I survived take me to the heat
07:13the party is going on in here is it I was more than ready for my full finished sauna experience now
07:20that's pretty sexy
07:24felt hat in place to protect my head from the heat I was soon in my element
07:30with the growth in popularity of saunas like this Jack feels he's in the right place at the right time
07:36when you were studying your ag science degree you never imagined to be perched on a rock here
07:44no I didn't it's a small bit different from what I had taught maybe a few years back when I was
07:48studying agricultural assignments yeah everything's after settling down a small bit and things seem to be
07:55going very very well so far yeah so hopefully it stays going that way for me is there a danger that
08:00this tempts you away from the farm in a bigger way um I'd say maybe maybe but I'd say there'll always be
08:07plenty of jobs at home for for me to do I don't think I'll ever be short of a job to do down there for
08:12some yeah some strange reason at least now you have options yeah I do I do
08:23that's it for part one coming up after the break blue tongue disease is in Ireland but are we ready
08:30to combat it if you don't stop it early then you run the risk of it becoming something that we may
08:34have to live with long term I'm making 3d toys in Kilkenny
08:46for the very first time the diseased blue tongue is now on the island of Ireland
08:52discovered in cattle here in Northern Ireland the implications of this are already being felt
08:57north and south of the border I'm here at the Royal Ulster Winter Fair in County Antrim where
09:02this area behind me should be filled with the very best breeds of cattle but due to the outbreak
09:09no animals are allowed into the fair this year for the past three weeks temporary control zones
09:15restricting animal movement have been in place in Northern Ireland around farms where blue tongue has
09:20been detected even though it lies outside these zones the Royal Ulster Winter Fair has cancelled all
09:27animal classes this year has this ever happened before no this is the 39th year of the Royal
09:33Ulster Winter Fair and we've never had it without livestock before and it is very very disappointing that
09:38we've had to do it this year do you think would there be a financial implication for some of the
09:42competitors I would imagine there would be but unfortunately there's nothing that we could do it
09:47we had to to take the advice and go with cancelling the classes the first positive tests for the disease occurred during routine
09:54sampling at an abattoir as part of the surveillance and tracking program for blue tongue in Northern
09:59Ireland since then it has been discovered in more herds David Kyle is deputy chief veterinary officer
10:07with the department of agriculture in Northern Ireland it's not really a surprise to us we've been
10:12tracking this disease for quite some time it landed in England in the southeast of England in about
10:18october 23 and we've been monitoring its progress across great britain blue tongue is spread by midges
10:25and is so called because one of the symptoms can be a swelling and discoloration of the tongue
10:31it can also cause fever lameness fetal deformities and stillbirths clinical signs are much more severe
10:38in sheep blue tongue poses no public health risk though or threat to food safety were those animals
10:45showing symptoms absolutely no symptoms they would have left the farm perfectly healthy and in the
10:50abattoir the vet would have seen them and there were no comments at all on their health with temporary
10:56control zones of 20 kilometers around affected farms now in operation movement of animals within these
11:02zones is severely restricted it spreads by midges not necessarily from animal to animal so why are there
11:09restrictions on why animals can move well pregnant animals can certainly carry the virus and the fear would be
11:15that pregnant animal could go to an area where there is no disease have and then midges subsequently
11:22set off a new wave of infection in response to the outbreak here the irish department of agriculture
11:28is now stepping up testing according to a spokesperson that will include on-farm blood sampling of cattle and
11:35sheep testing livestock submitted to regional veterinary laboratories and sampling of cattle routinely
11:41slaughtered at meat plants dr gerald barry is a virologist at the ucd school of veterinary medicine
11:49midges don't respect borders right so they're going to move where the wind blows them essentially
11:54they don't tend to move over massive distances but we couldn't discount it and i think we need to
12:00be really wary of the idea that potentially this virus has crossed the border climate change is causing
12:07warmer and shorter winters a factor that could be contributing to these recent outbreaks given that
12:14this winter has been quite mild is there a general increase of of more midges about the fact that there
12:21is milder winters definitely encourages that prolonged season of activity even into november and of course
12:27remember as well within barns and sheds where the temperature might be slightly higher you might have
12:33more midge activity potentially even into the deep winter in response to an anticipated outbreak on
12:40the island a new vaccine program was announced in the north this summer andrew moore is the minister of
12:47agriculture environment and rural affairs responsible for its introduction do we need to have an all
12:53ireland approach to this in terms of vaccinations the island of ireland is one single epidemiological area
12:58that's why we must cooperate on this in terms of vaccinations i made a decision as minister to
13:03allow farmers to make their own decisions whether to make this available for themselves it's for my
13:08counterpart in south to consider this as the picture emerges the irish department of agriculture has said
13:15it is now closely examining the potential role for blue tongue vaccines to help protect irish livestock
13:21when the higher risk disease transmission period begins in late spring early summer of next year
13:27year it is also engaging with vaccine companies in preparation for this the vaccine doesn't stop
13:34infection and it doesn't stop onward transmission of the virus from an infected animal what the vaccine
13:41will do is it'll reduce clinical signs and it'll reduce a little bit the amount of virus in the animal
13:49but it doesn't get rid of it and it doesn't block infection so while the vaccine does help it's not
13:54a kind of a magic bullet that's going to stop an outbreak in the north the decision to vaccinate has
14:00been left to individual farmers at the royal ulster winter fair the ones i spoke to were broadly supportive
14:08the vaccine uh currently is costing two pounds 50 per year or five pounds per pound so it's a considerable
14:15cost if you have to do it every year but if it prevents animals dying it's very cheap i don't think
14:20there'll be any going to vaccinate right at this moment i think coming closer to maybe january
14:24february time we're maybe going to have to look into it until there's a lot more positive cases
14:28i don't think we'll do a lot about it so will you vaccinate probably if it started to show its face
14:35more would be vaccinating yeah if blue tongue was to be detected in the republic the sector most impacted
14:43would be live exports which in 2024 was worth 340 million euro cattle accounted for 75 of that
14:53adam woods is beef editor with the irish farmers journal we export thousands of calves in the
14:59springtime and thousands of weanlings as well so that puts huge pressure then on in terms of beef
15:04price possibly in two years time the initial thinking now is because the disease is so prevalent across
15:09europe and there won't be as strict measures put in place heretofore it was that we had to be blue
15:14tongue free to export to those countries but because blue tongue is prevalent across europe those health
15:19certs it's thought that could be amended and we can still maybe export some cattle and some sheep from
15:242026 onwards the fact that blue tongue has finally been detected on the island confirms a fear we've been
15:31living with since it was found in england two years ago whether it's here to stay will be down to how we
15:37respond the key really is rapid early response we need to wrap up dramatically our surveillance
15:46to stamp out any potentially infected animals and then vaccinating that region as well as an added
15:53layer to try and mitigate against onward transmission of the infection next year if you don't stop it
16:00early then you run the risk of it becoming something that we may have to live with long term
16:07it is not long now until children all over the country will be unwrapping their new toys
16:16but not all of them will have been made in santa's workshop
16:20i'm in kilkenny to meet a young man on his family farm whose future lies in something completely different
16:28something he's building layer by layer adam brennan lives just outside castle comer he works as a
16:36substitute secondary school teacher but helps out on the farm when he can two years ago he also started
16:44his own 3d printing company and like many startups it all began in the family home so this is where it all
16:53started out up up in the attic yeah actually yeah the first printer was there and then by the end of
17:00five or six months i had six printers up here and i had no sockets left six printers six printers yeah
17:06was it very noisy they weren't no they're not too bad nice it's sure dad might say different now because
17:11this room is in there but it was fairly warm up here adam lives with his father jackie and grandmother
17:18mary mary mary and her late husband tom originally owned this farm but things of course were very
17:25different here in the 1950s what did you do what kind of farming we were making that time weren't we
17:31were making yeah making yeah very different from now very different from now we hadn't that many
17:36clothes i was sitting on the store making the cows but when i came here first you were hand milking
17:43the cows unbelievable that worked out for a few years jackie has developed the farm over the years
17:48and now has 70 fleck fee cattle a dual purpose milk and beef breed he was just 18 years old when he
17:56first took over here do you remember the first morning after you had had the farm handed over to you
18:02i wouldn't really remember it wouldn't have been any different than the morning before like you still
18:06had to go up to milk the cows like and it was sure but an amazing feeling surely yeah yeah but sure look
18:11you had more responsibility then to take on from there like so another 10 years i'd be handing over
18:16the reins only 10 years it's adam's brother liam who is the most interested in agriculture having
18:23studied it in college he's currently working in australia adam has an educational degree in graphics
18:30engineering and technology was it always in your mind like design engineering the idea that you might
18:37set something up i think it was yeah i suppose i would have been thinking about different
18:42businesses to set up and kind of thinking it through before actually deciding on one so i ended
18:47up a 3d printed end end yeah what did you make of it now and couldn't understand what 3d printing
18:51was and i can't clear what was going on so what the hell is this like doing upstairs didn't know
18:56what it was in the beginning like so i was wondering was there something that was going to milk the cows for me
19:00but did it make sense that adam started to go into that i mean was he always into those things
19:06i always had a good interest in them things like and i know whatever he was going to do he was going
19:10to do it right like good girl come on come on when i was in ty dad got me into farm supply shop in
19:17kilkenny and i kind of kept on that job then after ty i was working every summer and every saturday
19:22i was doing a lot of repairs and farm repairs and there's always something different coming in
19:26they had to had to fix there was always learning involved you never knew what was going to come
19:30through the door you give that one to the heifers it was during an open night at school when he was
19:37teaching that adam first saw a 3d printer in action it was something that immediately caught his
19:43attention i kind of did a bit of research kind of realized there was no one actually offering 3d
19:48printing as a service so i went and bought my own one then in january 24. where did you get the money
19:53for that how much they cost i'm sure i suppose i was living at home so i had a little bit saved in
19:58the bank so um they range from about 500 to a thousand there's different models coming out then
20:03so they are somewhat affordable in april of this year adam moved his operation into the local enterprise
20:11center in castlecomer having more space has allowed him to add more machines the two new printers he's
20:20bringing here today will mean he now has 25 machines in total these are the printers yeah these are all
20:28the printers so it's not what i had taught what did you think i had thought of a printer printer oh yeah
20:33yeah yeah it's a bit different yeah having taught children with autism and special educational needs
20:40adam decided to focus his 3d printing business on making sensory toys they're made using bio-based
20:48plastic imported from asia which are derived from plant materials such as cornstarch and sugarcane
20:55so it's building up layer by layer here one at a time and then the first layer is made on the base
21:01of it so the first layer on this one is all that part there oh it's hot yeah and then it's hot when it
21:07comes out of the printer but kind of cools down fairly quickly yeah and how long does it take to build
21:11that and that one there takes five hours adam's tactile and colorful toys are largely based on
21:25animals and dinosaurs but he also makes fidget type objects you're a teacher when you go into a class
21:33where you think that the kids would benefit from these what happens when you give it to them
21:37it's like clicking the pen there with the kids to have energy that they're trying to release so when
21:41they have something in their hand like a fidget toy they're releasing energy so they're more inclined
21:45to be focused then when that energy is being output somewhere else okay so they can concentrate
21:49a bit they can concentrate a lot more yeah do you design them yourself um i design some things myself
21:56most of the toys i pay a commercial license on them and then i get them tested and then they're
22:01available to sell them after that adam is also looking to grow his business in other directions
22:08everything from making molds for use by sculptors to manufacturing industrial parts so that's the
22:15scanner there and it picks up the dimensions when i put it close to the object yeah so these markers
22:19there that are around that screwdriver there that's giving the scanner a signal of where it actually is
22:25and what i'm scanning so you can take an object like this yeah put it on this table scan it yeah yeah
22:31and replicate it down into a plastic and then just replicate it that's incredible exactly and how
22:35big an object can you scan um i could scan you if i wanted to scan you i suppose yeah so the the
22:41potential is massive yeah there's loads of potential yeah adam sells his sensory toys and fidgets online
22:48and at markets and they're now stocked in places like dublin zoo dingle aquarium and the national reptile zoo
22:55here in kilkenny is it financially a good prospect are you making a return now um suppose any business
23:03as well like at the start i did have an input with my own funds but then after a couple months then
23:09as well it was paying for itself and like i am still in the first two years so i am reinvesting
23:15reinvesting why i'm making and you've developed three careers yes i suppose there's three careers
23:19are on the go now yes so trying to keep it all tied into one and have a balance between it all is
23:24the main focus it's not a stage yet where i want to even though i do have a lot there behind me though
23:30i still have a long way to go i think
23:36well that's it for this episode and this year we'll be back on your screens on the 8th of january
23:42in the meantime have a lovely christmas and a happy new year don't forget this program will be
23:48repeated on sunday at lunchtime after the farming weather you can contact us on facebook and follow
23:54us on x and you can hear more farming stories on countrywide this sashley morning on rte radio one
24:12and you can hear more of the
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