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00:00hello and welcome to ear to the ground well for over two decades irish farmers have been opposing
00:06america trade deal but now that it has passed the vote at european council level i'm here today to
00:12try and find out if it really will be as damaging as they fear later on in the program stephen
00:19will
00:19be meeting a group of farmers who are looking after their health and well-being primarily
00:24involved in the program to get a wee lifestyle change and get in and get moving get in and get
00:29talking get in amongst each other and ella will be seeing how a notoriously pampered breed of cattle
00:34is dealing with life on the burn we've calves been born out on the snow and they're perfect
00:41they've adapted to it great
01:03last friday the european commission approved the eu mercosur deal a free trade agreement
01:09with a block of four south american countries ireland voted against one of five states to do so
01:17over a period of time the deal will remove tariffs and duties on a wide range of products between the
01:23two regions specifically the deal allows for 99 000 tons of beef imports annually into the eu
01:32beef farmers here are fearful in county roscommon michael glennan is a full-time beef farmer
01:39he farms along with his son martin who also has a job with a building contractor we have seen a
01:46lot of
01:46changes we have fought through them all we fought hard for them like briggs had came decimated the
01:52agriculture in england left us with tariffs mercosur seems to be coming now and uh it's going to destroy
02:00agriculture in ireland altogether we're going to lose a percentage of our market and our price is
02:06going to be affected the bottom line is we need to get a price for our beef just what way
02:11do you go do
02:11you stay in farming or do you move on to something else what is the biggest concern you have about
02:18it
02:18will i have a future in farming as a young farmer it's frightening now to be honest if mercosur was
02:25blocked would you then be confident i'd have a lot more confidence anyway michael and martin aren't
02:32alone in their opposition to mercosur i met them the day after the eu council vote as they prepared to
02:38join in a protest taking place in atlone a number of neighboring farmers have also gathered some of
02:45whom recall the protests of the 1960s when farmers demanded better prices talking to my father last
02:52night he said that they blocked bridges in 1967 and i think it's kind of a throwback to that and
02:57just
02:57one thing to remember they were successful then so never throwing the towel so this is obviously a big
03:02deal it's a very big deal for especially for young farmers as well trying to you know make a living
03:06this means a lot to ireland we're a small country we produce absolutely brilliant beef in this
03:12country we export 90 of our beef our export market that's what's going to support the young farmers
03:16in this country we headed off for the local meet-up point before carrying on to the protest
03:23every tractor within 50 kilometers of atlone i'd say it'll be out today will it all the will yeah the
03:29tractor's supposed to be coming from dunygal cork these farmers have mobilized because the mercosur
03:35deal will remove tariffs on 99 000 tons of imported beef but it will also remove tariffs on most eu
03:42exports including pharmaceuticals and cars we're going to start importing beef here they're cutting
03:48down the rainforest in brazil we're planting trees they're cutting it down it's bmws for beef that's
03:55the way we see it the thing is that young lad there and that young lad there it'll affect him
04:00more than
04:00it's going to affect me you don't believe anybody that says look that it mightn't be as bad as you
04:06think it's going to be no it will be bad a lot of young people here today who are looking
04:11for a future
04:11in farming their future depends on this deal oh it'll be massive really i'm telling you massive
04:17atlone won't know how it is
04:19the protest was organized by independent ireland with support from the main farming organizations
04:29as we set off to join the main tractor convoy it was clear it was a large turnout there were
04:35plenty
04:36of supporters lying the route too we've got into the thick of it here now we're in the thick of
04:42it
04:42here now all right yeah i don't know where we're going now there after over an hour we reached the
04:48protest where crowds had gathered irish farming has been underpinned by european support since 1973
04:56with decades of cap funding transforming incomes productivity and rural survival after brexit the
05:03eu made significant efforts to shield irish trade from disruption especially agri-food exports supporters
05:11of this deal believe that farmers have little to fear economist alan matthews is professor of european
05:17agricultural policy at trinity college dublin if we actually look at the volume of that 99 000 tons
05:25in relation to the overall consumption of beef in the in the european union which is actually six
05:31million tons so we're talking about one and a half percent additional supply the beef that will be
05:36imported will be sold at the high market price that the mercosur exporters can get at the moment why
05:44would they accept a lower price and reduce their their export earnings so they will continue to look for the
05:50best price possible independent economic advice though is cold comfort for farm organizations here
05:58francy gorman is president of the irish farmers association it's inconceivable that you can bring
06:05more beef into the market and not affect the price the price is driven by by supply and demand and
06:11if you
06:12bring increase supply it's either going to have an impact in one or two ways it'll reduce price or stop
06:17the
06:17price going up but there's economists with a lot of experience who've looked at this
06:21in depth and they say it's a drop in the ocean and you talk to any of the processors and
06:26any of them
06:27will tell you that if you were trying to compete against cheaper beef coming in from somewhere else
06:32it makes it more difficult to sell what you have those opposing mercosur claim that not only will
06:38it deflate beef prices but that the imported beef may not reach the eu's food safety standards
06:44pony connery is manager of roscommon mart every animal that comes through the mart every animal
06:49that comes off the farm has a passport an ear tag anybody can see what medicines they've got from
06:54farm to fork all the way through the risk is with this deal some of this untraceable meat that's coming
07:00into the country might be substandard it is entirely in european hands to control the import of meat and to
07:08ensure that it meets european standards if imports don't do that we can at any time limit access either
07:16to a particular factory or indeed to the country as a whole whether we ratify mercosur or not
07:23doesn't change our ability in europe to control the import let us remember that we are already importing
07:30200 000 tons of the 99 000 tons of beef to be imported 55 will be fresh or chilled and
07:3845 will be frozen
07:41some protesters i spoke to were worried about traceability i don't think that i would be able
07:46to go into a supermarket and automatically look at the shelves and say that's brazilian beef and that's
07:51irish beef i think i'd have to really look at the fine print to be sure that i was getting
07:55what i
07:56expected i was getting and that's not good enough consumers mightn't see it arriving on the shelves
08:04they might see it arriving in their local restaurant they might know as a result of where it's coming
08:09from before it can be enacted the mercosur trade deal must still be ratified by the european parliament
08:16today we've seen the very clear advice to the government we'll take no more
08:23there are no official figures available but organizers claim 30 000 people attended the rally over the day
08:31farmers like michael are hoping that continued public pressure will galvanize a majority of meps
08:37to go against the deal when the vote takes place in april or may this year from my point of
08:44view it could be
08:45the start of it if we have to go to dublin we will have double or triple i'd be hoping
08:51maybe quadruple
08:52what has been here in that lawn today i would be expecting somewhere in a hundred thousand to descend
08:57on the streets of dublin correct if needs be
09:05that's it for part one coming up after the break stephen is being put through his paces in donegal
09:11and florist weapons i am but i am spumbling on me and life on the burn for wagyu cattle
09:26farming is a physical and active profession but that doesn't mean it's a healthy lifestyle
09:32i've come here to the fan of peninsula in county donegal to meet a group of farmers who've banded together
09:37to keep fit and connected with one another sam dull is a very busy full-time farmer at the moment
09:45he has about 240 beef cattle here and also keeps over a thousand sheep sam is married with four
09:53children but farms alone meaning some very long and isolated days most evenings it could be seven
10:01eight to nine o'clock before we finished and it could some of us maybe run on to ten o
10:05'clock and you'd see
10:07nobody until you go back to the house so throughout your farming day you really wouldn't interact with
10:13that many people nobody really like unless you go to local co-op it can be fairly stressful like when
10:20things go wrong they go fairly wrong towards the end of 2023 sam became aware of a small tremor in
10:29his right hand
10:31last year at the age of 49 he was diagnosed with the progressive neurological disorder parkinson's disease
10:40i probably put it in the back of my mind more and tried not thinking about it and i suppose
10:45life has
10:46went on as normal apart from the small tremor but the medications keeping that under control
10:51like it's not affecting my day-to-day work is there any impact i've slowed down a bit other than
10:57that
10:57it's not too bad yet like i suppose it might progress during the years given time it probably will
11:03having been told that exercise would be helpful sam decided to join a local physical
11:09fitness program called men on the move based in the community hub in nearby rasnakill did you decide
11:17to join off your own accord or was there a bit of gentle persuasion there was a good bit of
11:21gentle
11:22persuasion because it's not someone really that i would usually do like exercise has been i don't know
11:29really being a farmer you'd you'd be more or less thinking the exercise that you're doing every day would
11:35be enough but it's it's not really exercise that gentle persuasion to join up came from sam's wife
11:43kathy and does he like it he loves it he does surprisingly i didn't think he would stick at it
11:49because it's so out of his of his comfort zone like you know he buy runners you know put on
11:53the shorts
11:53get you know get all that sort of stuff it's definitely up to the spirits and just the sense of
11:59of achievement having something other than the farm looking forward to meeting people having a gossip
12:05and farmers love a gossip and it's different to go into the market because the market you're still
12:09working but this was something that he was doing and his leisure doing for him not for not for the
12:15farm or not for anybody else there was more of a hop and a skip to his step you know
12:19than than before
12:21parkinson's disease is caused by a loss of dopamine producing cells in the brain
12:26studies suggest that including high intensity exercise which can increase dopamine levels
12:32may help to slow down the progression of the disease as part of an early treatment plan
12:38is it helping with your parkinson's it would help with my parkinson's like suppose the exercise
12:43produces dopamine with my brain apparently it's not producing enough of
12:47and like exercise alone helps everything i feel fitter and probably gives me that extra buzz and i
12:55look forward to it twice a week sam is one of around 50 farmers in this area of donegal who
13:02have joined
13:02the men on the move group around three kilometers away in laden sean meeting is another he farms part
13:11time alongside his father while also working remotely for an it company he joined the group on his doctor's
13:18advice but the social aspect has helped keep him involved i suppose a lot of people are just sitting in
13:25and it's a long night sitting in on your own there's a lot it could be a lot of farmers
13:28on their own and
13:29so i suppose you're socializing what you get out two nights a week it's hard to get motivated to head
13:34out
13:34on your own during the night together and come together a group of men it was seemed easier to
13:39work from that starting point that very first class what were you feeling apprehensive but you
13:45see people your own age there yeah you're feeling this isn't that too bad this is i'll cope here and
13:51i did join in and got on as good as the rest
13:58men on the move is a national initiative overseen by sport ireland
14:02with support from the hse the classes which are initially free to join are based around 12-week
14:09programs the group in rasna kill is funded by donegal sports partnership and run by farmer and
14:16occupational therapist seamus carr primarily to involved in the program to get a wee lifestyle change
14:22uh get the exercise you know and get in and get moving get and get talking get in amongst each
14:27other
14:28the aim of the program is to improve functional fitness through light strength aerobic flexibility
14:34and mobility exercises the men also receive advice on diet and nutrition and tips for managing stress
14:43this sounds like an awful lot more than just a fitness class absolutely i absolutely and in terms of
14:49that like we start every session with um pre-check one of the local nurses comes over she does uh
14:55blood
14:56pressure checks she does weight checks she does a lot of that education piece around that in terms of
15:00that and then at the end of the 12 weeks then we do that repeat them tests see where it
15:03is off he's
15:04go he's not what to do at the stage off he's go off he's go off he's go around 40
15:08men including sam and
15:09sean have come out tonight to be put through their paces just bring it past your knee or things
15:15got off to a gentle start just the whole way around but i wasn't ready for the circuit training
15:20three two one
15:35most of the men here might be a bit older
15:38than me but they were putting me to shame
15:43and having fun in the process
15:51take on that is take on
15:55and after all that exercise there's also a short road run or in my case a walk
16:04this is week nine of a 12-week program it's easy enough to be motivated in january but i somehow
16:11get the feeling that both sam and sean are determined enough to sign up for another term
16:17sam how are you feeling after that pretty good we're pretty tired this evening but then when i come
16:22down here kind of gives you a buzz again good stress reliever as well definitely so what happens after
16:29the 12-week program i think at the end of they're planning the five key and a saturday and probably
16:34a celebration of some kind afterwards and that's the plan i know for a bit of momentum there so
16:38hopefully they'll keep coming very good very good
16:46seven years ago during a trip to australia a farmer from here in the borough and saw something and
16:53thought i'm going to give that a go in ireland and so that is exactly what he did
16:59frank mccormick is that farmer and one morning last december he brought me to see his latest arrival
17:08oh my lord look at that tiny when was a cat monday evening the calf was born overnight in this
17:17field
17:19they look quite like aberdeen angus but these are what you call wagyu are they
17:22their wagyu so do you get involved in calving at all in the season no we used to we leave
17:28them
17:29blown leave them off they do it out frank isn't the first farmer to raise japanese wagyu cattle in
17:35ireland but he is the first to rear them outside almost all year round and frank this little thing here
17:43when will it become beef in three years time if it's a bull calf it'll be on someone's plate
17:51and you haven't checked the sex yet no but if it's if it's female then what happens it'll become
17:56one of our breeding stock because we're trying to build up and build up and build up
18:02this calf turned out to be a male and he's now part of frank's 200 strong wagyu herd
18:10frank grew up in kildare and actually began his working life as a bricklayer before training as a
18:15stone mason in 1991 he set up a company which he still runs dealing in heritage conservation and stone
18:25sculpture it was back when frank was just 21 years old and on holidays with friends that he first saw
18:32the baron and fell in love when we were coming across from guard i just said to the lads my
18:39god look at
18:41it's amazing so the same weekend i met my wife a limerick woman and three years later we had bought
18:50farm here i wanted to be a farmer all my friends in gildare were farmer sons and i'd like to
18:58have been
18:58a farmer and that was it for many years frank reared hardy breeds common in this part of ireland
19:05like aberdeen angus and hereford but in 2018 on his trip to australia he saw his first wagyu cow and
19:14was
19:15inspired i really wanted to try something different and to see how it would work here in clare to see
19:23could
19:23we do it wagyu animals are known for being quite high end and yet here we are in the burn
19:30you throw
19:30them up on the side of the mountain and you leave them there yes how do they fare very well
19:36we've been
19:37doing it now for about four years we've calves being born out on the snow and they're perfect
19:44they've adapted to it great they're very hardy wagyu beef is one of the most expensive meats in the
19:52world prized for its exceptional marbling and tenderness but it's only now that frank is getting
19:58close to finding out if there is money to be made from rearing wagyu cattle here his son francis runs
20:05the
20:06operation have you put all your eggs in one basket here i mean you're you're looking at scale here
20:11this isn't some sort of small artisan project on the side is it i mean we've we put well between
20:16myself and my father we put all of our eggs into the basket you could say but you can either
20:21go along
20:22and keep paddling away in the shallow end of the pool or else you can go deep in and start
20:27swimming with
20:27the sharks and that's where as you would say the big money is that's where the business is
20:32i genuinely believe that the wagyu cattle are a big part of my future i believe there's a whole
20:39business here to be passed down even while the pregnant wagyu cows are out roaming the uplands
20:48frank's five bulls are taking a well-earned rest safely penned in for the winter months the first of
20:54these bulls offerings are now almost ready to go to a local abattoir because of a lack of animal housing
21:0180 cattle have been brought here to the farm of tom howard in nearby cora finn where they will be
21:08finished on locally produced feed of oats and beans what was it that frank says that convinced you to
21:16get involved well i suppose my background was that we're we have a beef commercial business finishing
21:21maybe 120 bullocks a year and the margins very poor and it keeps varying so i was looking for something
21:28different spoke to frank he actually gave me some burgers and some steaks that's what you did yeah
21:34because i what i saw the cattle i didn't like them they don't look very presentable compared to a
21:39limousine or a charlie exactly so um i tasted the meat it was very nice i said you know there's
21:44something
21:44in this i was very excited about it wagyu breeding stock is expensive to buy and frank gives his animals
21:51longer to mature than is conventional up to three and a half years he and tom are hoping that this
21:58selling point and the reputation of wagyu beef will result in him getting over 20 euro per kilo that's
22:05more than double what conventional farmers get so you have your limousines and the profit you can get
22:10off the wagyu is it just bigger for you or we haven't we haven't worked out the the finer details
22:15of
22:15that yet because this is a learn as we go along phase at the moment and we all have to
22:20make some
22:20money out of it it'll be very easy for me to make more than what i'm making at the moment
22:24so if it goes
22:26to plan that that he can find the customers which i'm sure and comfortable that they will we'll all be
22:33very
22:33happy ultimately frank believes that bringing wagyu cattle to the barn could allow future generations
22:40of his family to continue to live and farm here if our grandchildren are going to be here in the
22:48barn i think they can have less cattle than i ever had here but get more for them and that's
22:55what it's
22:56about better for the environment better for our carbon footprint it's working along with nature
23:03that's what it is and i believe it will be sustainable
23:11that's it for this week coming up on ear to the ground next week ella will be seeing how technology
23:16is changing the practice of sending yo's to the ram so this is like having another farmer on the farm
23:23yeah yeah a smarter farmer steve will be getting a little teary-eyed in cork but i have to say
23:29it's
23:29after hitting me so it is all right it'll only get worse don't worry and i'll be meeting one
23:34carey farmer devastated by the theft of a large number of his sheep so when i started gathering
23:39i knew those big problems and then i found the reality what was after happening don't forget this
23:45program will be repeated on sunday at lunchtime after the farming weather you can contact us on facebook
23:51and follow us on x and you can hear more farming stories on countrywide this sashtay morning on rte radio
23:591
23:59and we'll see you next week
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