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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 the day with an alpaca farmer in County Wicklow.
00:25Good girl! Oh!
00:47It's the end of July on one of the hottest days of the year
00:51and the Hobson farm in Warrenstown in County Meath is gearing up for the start of the harvest season.
00:57Four generations of the family have made their livelihood growing crops.
01:02David, good morning.
01:03Good morning, how are you?
01:04Not too bad.
01:04David Hobson runs this large scale operation with his brother Robert and his dad John.
01:10Real busy time of year for you.
01:12Real busy time of year for us and the busiest period is about to start in the next two or
01:16three weeks.
01:16As well as growing wheat, barley, oats, oilseed rape and other crops on around 1800 acres,
01:24the 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.
01:35In scorching weather like this, fires are an all too real risk.
01:39So this is the dusty, chaffy material that could potentially catch fire?
01:44Yeah. It's getting very dry. It wouldn't take a whole lot to catch spark.
01:47Your working machines have very high hydraulic pressures.
01:50You 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.
01:56A 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.
02:08That's how you know it's nearly ready?
02:09Yeah. Know it's nearly ready.
02:11Grains are rock hard with a bite.
02:14And yeah, it looks good to go.
02:17We 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.
02:25And 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.
02:51Before the combine can be let loose, the moisture content of the grain must 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.
03:05Jeez, it's dry, isn't it?
03:07It's fantastic sodas.
03:08Yeah.
03:13So, power it up.
03:14Here we go.
03:1615.4.
03:18Good enough for harvesting.
03:19Erm, yeah.
03:21Oh yeah.
03:22Yeah, we're going to cut away.
03:22Yeah, yeah.
03:23Because in the next hour, it's going to be below that.
03:26And it could get too dry, so we get going now.
03:34David 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
03:52to 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.
04:04But 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, we had a lot of challenges growing up.
04:24Communication was always a difficult thing.
04:28Miscommunication, we 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.
04:41But 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.
04:49We always wanted to do our best for our parents, like, because they did so well for us.
04:53What's your dad's situation?
04:55It's almost thrusted you into a management position a lot earlier than a lot of other young farmers.
05:01Yeah, 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
05:24a 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.
05:40Commodities, 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.
05:54The 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.
06:12It's definitely given us a little bit more flexibility in terms of selling power, also comfort.
06:17Like, we know when we want to sell, it's opened a few more doors, I suppose, with adding value to
06:21other markets.
06:23Yeah, it's definitely helped us a lot in the last few years.
06:27While 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.
06:38And the lower the moisture it is, the less you have to dry it?
06:41Yes, exactly. So, the harvest kitchen right now, that's doing the drying for us.
06:45It's a rare enough event in Ireland. We 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
06:57because 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, it will take less time, meaning a valuable saving.
07:26And in this sector, particularly at the moment, that's welcome.
07:31It'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 tonnes an acre of wheat,
07:44over two tonnes an acre of oilseed grape, four tonnes an acre of barley.
07:47And, like, we really need to be producing those yields to stay viable because our grain prices are just so
07:53volatile.
07:53And 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.
08:04That's it for part one.
08:05Coming up after the break, Ella 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 a day with an alpaca farmer in County Wicklow.
08:26Whether 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.
08:46This 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 and they're all censored.
09:02So 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.
09:13If it is a mink, dispatch the mink, which means you're going to kill the mink.
09:15That's right, yeah.
09:16It's a live catch trap and we have to attempt to it straight away and remove the mink and
09:20dispatch it humanely.
09:22Mink are a major threat to Ireland's ground nesting birds, taking not only the eggs, but
09:28often 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 with support from the National Parks
09:42and Wildlife Service.
09:43The project spans more than 2,500 square kilometres, an area that includes some of Ireland's most important
10:00breeding grounds for waders like the Curlew and the Snipe.
10:07600 sensor equipped traps will be placed in spots where mink activity is suspected.
10:13I can see the little sensor on the front there.
10:16So that is what is communicating with your phone.
10:18Yeah.
10:18So 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.
10:29You can see it moving.
10:29You'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 dispatch somewhere safe.
10:41OK, 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,
11:33and 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,
11:39and that's a cycle gone, and some of them are quite short-lived birds,
11:42so 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.
12:06Many of the birds that nest on the ground here are red-listed,
12:10and their populations are in severe decline.
12:14A recent report shows that they're 15 times more likely to be in decline
12:19than other European bird species.
12:26We have choices. Do we want ground-nesting birds in some areas that we can control populations of predators,
12:31such as mink, or do we want predators everywhere and no ground-nesting birds?
12:35And they're the hard decisions that we need to make,
12:36because we know our land use has changed so much over the last 50 to 60 years
12:41that these birds are doing really, really badly.
12:44Owen is a wildlife management specialist and the driving force behind this project.
12:51He's bringing me to another location where mink have been seen,
12:55Carrakeen Ochten 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.
13:14When you're working in large, wide-open landscapes,
13:16it's very, very hard for a human to know if there are a mink there or isn't there a mink.
13:20Yeah.
13:20So to be able to focus where we put down our trap,
13:22so our trap is in the best possible location to catch a mink,
13:25this lad's nose is what it's all about.
13:28Also with us are project data analyst Elena Bakura
13:31and a new volunteer, Daniel Connell.
13:34Hi, Daniel. How are you?
13:36So Daniel has started yesterday and will be working,
13:38setting some traps or checking some traps for us.
13:40So we'll be joined by Mark who will do that.
13:42And we have Elena here who will go through the mapping
13:44and the data collection aspect of it.
13:45The data collection is everything.
13:47Well, it's hugely important.
13:48I mean, if you put down a trap and then you don't know where it is
13:49and you don't know whether it was rebated, all these things,
13:52you know, the whole programme would quickly fall asunder.
13:54So the data collection is massively important.
13:56Now it is Larg's turn to get to work.
14:00Larg, mink.
14:02So you just have to go quite a pace to keep up with them.
14:09Larg is searching an area where Owen has received a report of a fighting.
14:20So he's snittling all the time, yeah?
14:23You see that?
14:24Mink, show me.
14:27And if we look at here, we can see the mink scath.
14:30Oh, my Lord.
14:32That'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.
14:37So our citizen science information was bang on.
14:42Mark, Elena and Daniel are on hand to set up the trap.
14:45There's a locking system on this trap and a double door.
14:48This three-and-a-half-year project is just getting started.
14:52A crucial part of its success will be attracting more volunteers like Daniel
14:58and 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,
15:08and learned a lot about American mink and how detrimental they are to Irish breeding water birds and wintering water
15:15birds.
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
15:24and 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.
15:30So Ireland is an island nation, and it would have to be an all-island effort.
15:34But technically, we could. It would be a really, really sizable amount of work and would take resource.
15:39But if we can get the voluntary and citizen science model, it reduces the cost hugely.
15:45So then it is something that possibly is achievable into the future.
15:54A lot of people dream of starting a new life doing something completely different.
15:59But most of us never actually manage it because it does require a huge leap of faith that can be
16:05terrifying.
16:06But it's that terror mixed with excitement that inspires others.
16:11Like the farmer I'm about to meet here in Wicklow this morning.
16:17Joe Phelan is still something of a rarity in Ireland, an alpaca farmer.
16:21Hey, Joe. Hello, Dara. You're very welcome.
16:24He keeps a herd of 80 animals on 90 acres of land in Callowhill near Newtown Mount Kennedy.
16:30Hi, guys.
16:31Janet Herman has worked here for the last five years, while Emily Norell, a veterinary student, is just helping out
16:38for the summer.
16:39Now, Dara, before we go in here, we have to dip our feet. This is a biosecurity on the farm.
16:43OK.
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.
16:53The first year I came here, I was busy, put gelters in around the place, and I deliberately went out
16:59in 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.
17:05Originally from Kerry, Joe spent most of his life in Dublin.
17:09A father of four, he worked for nearly 40 years in the banking sector.
17:14For me, the turning point really would have been back around 2014, you know, because at that stage, three of
17:19my kids left home at the one time.
17:21And it kind of was like a trigger. It kind of switched my thinking.
17:24And I had this idea that I didn't want to retire.
17:27And then I started thinking, well, what would I really like?
17:30You know, I like the outdoors. I always had this desire to set up my own business, but wasn't brave
17:35enough.
17:36But Joe did take the leap in 2016.
17:39He was born in 2017.
17:40He initially invested in eight prize-winning females for breeding, which he sourced in the UK.
17:47He now has over 80 animals here.
17:50This is what we call our kind of maternity group now.
17:53So you'll see there's lots of adults and then lots of babies.
17:56So there's eight crea in here. So a baby alpaca is called a crea.
17:59There 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.
18:11The difference between the two is that Daydream gets away with a haircut every two years.
18:16The others have to be shorn every year.
18:18The sale of this fibre is just one of the farm's income streams.
18:23As 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.
18:39But no amount of research could prepare him for every aspect of rearing alpacas.
18:45The adjustment was quite big, and even still is, because I don't have a farming background really.
18:51I have experience on a farm from when I was small. So this is still a steep learning curve.
18:56You know, I'm trying to see how do I make the farm work and earn its keep.
19:00Come on, little girl. Come on, little one.
19:03While 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
19:13to make up for the lack of sunshine here.
19:16Today, one of the herd needs eye drops to treat an infection.
19:22Administering them doesn't come without risk.
19:25What I'm looking at is her gob.
19:26Oh yeah, you have to watch that. That's why I'm holding her.
19:30But I'm not really holding her.
19:31See? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:32So she's a bit like mad.
19:34I'm going to turn her this way, because the wind is going this way.
19:37Good girl, classic.
19:39Oh, there you go. Good girl.
19:41Oh, well done.
19:44So we're just popping that ointment inside her eye.
19:48Now, well done.
19:50Oh, well done. Good girl.
19:52Oh.
19:54But a far more serious disease has had a deadly impact on Joe's farm.
19:59Bovine tuberculosis.
20:02In 2020, 17 infected animals had to be put down after contracting TB.
20:08In 2022, the disease struck again.
20:11Even now, talking to me kind of makes me feel a bit sick to the stomach.
20:16We lost three generations of studs.
20:19It destroyed our breeding aspect of our business.
20:23I'd say it nearly destroyed your appetite for running a bit.
20:29It did for a while, and 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.
20:39So I only breed for myself.
20:41In the Irish market, some of these studs would have been worth 15,000, for example.
20:46You know, so really valuable animals.
20:48Thirty-three animals had to be destroyed as a result of the second infection.
20:53It was extremely difficult.
20:55I have no problem saying there was tears in my eyes, you know, putting someone down.
20:59It was really difficult.
21:01But 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.
21:14The 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.
21:31His two alpacas, Paddy and Oscar, are also regulars here, and so are well used to all the attention.
21:39Now...
21:40Hello, guys. How are we?
21:42If we try to rub them on the neck, they prefer a rub on the neck.
21:45Oh, they're nice.
21:47That's us. Well done, guys. Well done.
21:49The alpacas are really, really calm. They're really chilled animals.
21:53Yeah, the rams are much bigger up here, you know, whereas the alpacas, they're not much bigger than this.
22:00It's not that often you'd have visitors like that here.
22:03No. No.
22:04But it's great for them.
22:07Children love them.
22:09Children, our little granddaughters love them.
22:12And I always bring two because one keeps the other comforts, you know, rather than one.
22:16What did you make of them?
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.
22:26So they're really good, aren't they?
22:28Oh, do you?
22:31There's only one resident left to visit, but she's on the second floor.
22:35That's no bother to Paddy and Oscar.
22:38That's what you call arriving in style, isn't it?
22:42For Joe, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of his business.
22:46And 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 what I was doing.
22:57I could hear people behind me laughing at me.
22:59You 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.
23:15Next week on the program, tackling rural crime.
23:18Bringing 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 and now you want to cut me
23:32another 70% will be left with little or nothing.
23:36And artificial intelligence transforming farming.
23:38Should be 115 days ago. There it is now on the screen. 115.2 days.
23:45Don't forget that this program will be repeated on Sunday at lunchtime after the farming weather.
23:50You can contact us on Facebook and follow us on X and you can hear more farming stories on Countrywide
23:57this Saturday morning on RTE Radio 1.
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