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Ear to the Ground - Season 33 - Episode 15
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00:00hello and welcome to ear to the ground coming up on the show i'm here in the shannon estuary
00:04in limerick helping to gather reeds for thatching my grandfather probably caught this read really
00:10100 years ago you know and my father would have dara is in kilkenny where it's all hands on deck
00:17during a busy calving season mom are you okay mom you're a good girl and stephen is going bananas
00:24in balbrigham that does not smell like a banana that smells that smells like a cucumber cucumber yeah
00:31why
00:52it's just gone 6 a.m
00:56on cantwell's court farm just outside kilkenny city milking is well underway
01:02but this is also the height of calving season
01:07katie o'toole and her partner david fogarty are nine days in
01:14already 189 calves have been born but with a herd of 540 there's still a long way to go
01:22while we wait there's a small matter of feeding all the new arrivals so this is breakfast time
01:29breakfast time at the zoo and these are all girls that are going to go into the herd
01:34yes exactly yeah these are the replacements this is our future yeah
01:40hello not all the cows born on this farm will be going into the dairy herd
01:45in here these animals are just being reared for beef beef yeah where everything seems to be calving
01:51very well all of these calves will be sold at three weeks to be reared on local beef farms
01:58there's two goals to breed good dairy replacements for our dairy herd and to breed good beef calves then
02:05for the beef farmer just around the corner the next batch of cows that are close to their due dates
02:11is
02:11patiently waiting good girls neither katie nor david is from a farming background but both studied
02:20agriculture and have worked extensively in the industry they were looking for an opportunity to get
02:26into dairying and the scale of this operation was actually part of the attraction we were approached
02:33coming up on two years ago now about taking on the management of this farm and entering a partnership
02:39then buy into it i suppose it's kind of like a bit of skin in the game really they were
02:43offering
02:45in my eyes this is perfect i suppose myself and david when we both set out that we both wanted
02:49to go
02:50farming full-time we had to have the scale so that we both be able to draw off the farm
02:54the fact that the
02:55scale was there that we could bring in a bit of labor and stuff like that it probably appealed to
02:58us
02:59especially when the two of us are working together like it's you need a bit of labor so that we
03:02can get
03:03away together so we took over the management of the farm in august 2024 then we bought 24 of the
03:10business that's here so that's you know infrastructure and the cows we get a salary before a profit share
03:16based on the percentage that we own katie and david have one full-time and one part-time worker
03:23but at busy times like this they take on extra help
03:27they are all constantly keeping an eye on the maternity ward and it looks like calf number 190
03:35is on the way and coming quickly
03:54as on most dairy farms the cow and calf are separated shortly after birth
03:59what have we got here heifer oh we have a heifer whitehead yeah yeah nice looking calf
04:07first the calf must be weighed and tagged
04:11then it's time for its first and most important feed
04:16during pregnancy cows produce a thick nutrient-dense milk known as colostrum essential in building the
04:23calf's immune system let's see now look at that that's what we love straight away like a duck to order
04:31not even 15 minutes old huh but no sooner has katie
04:36finished then another calf makes its appearance
04:49that's it
05:00they say that good things come in threes
05:05and right on cue a third calf arrives
05:11yesterday a staggering 23 calves were born here it's an indication of where irish dairy farming may be
05:20heading
05:20you guys are part of a new wave in irish dairy and where you know 500 cows isn't that unusual
05:27anymore
05:27yeah yeah that's true like it's i suppose the bigger scale is allowing people like myself and katie
05:33into farming and into agriculture and i think going forward we probably are going to see you know
05:38slightly bigger dairy units across the country you know where maybe two smaller farms come together
05:43and make a bigger a bigger dairy unit this is only david and katie's second calving season here
05:50but for them each new arrival represents confirmation that they've made the right decision
05:55it is a great opportunity here and we're just willing and able to grow like we're still able to
06:01buy up to another 20 percent i suppose you know long long term we'd like to start buying a bit
06:07of
06:07land as well if we could but we're not fully caught up on that just yet like so even though
06:13this system
06:15has worked brilliantly for you the lure of the land and land ownership it's there within you as well
06:21it's there i suppose it's just kind of like having a you know our own patch you know something that
06:26we
06:26own for ourselves like you know it's a bit of security and it's somewhere to put down your roots like
06:34but right now there's another calf on the way this one is looking a little bit more complicated
06:42katie has taken the cow out of the pen to have a closer look
06:48this is a first time calver yeah there's a leg there yeah so the two legs are coming perfectly
06:56yeah straight and then her head is sitting nicely no okay no she's fine we'll let her back into the
07:02pen and we'll give her another one after 20 minutes with still no movement david and katie
07:08decide to intervene they attach calving ropes to the calves hooves and work with the cow
07:21with each contraction the calf is teased out wait wait next push yeah
07:31good girl that's a girl well done okay
07:38mom are you okay mom mom will be fine yeah good girl
07:42calf number 193 is a heifer so she'll end up coming in as a replacement in two years time all
07:51going to plan
07:57later that evening and deep into the night four more cows are born only another eight weeks of the same
08:05to go
08:10well that's it for part one coming up after the break what it takes to produce a good banana if
08:16these bananas are left not adjusted then bananas will take off and we will lose control of this fruit very
08:20quick and no matter how much you try you cannot get it back under control and re-gathering season on
08:25the shannon for centuries the practice of reed cutting for thatching was a localized trade in ireland
08:39here on the shannon estuary in limerick it was a source of off-season income for salmon fishermen
08:46in 2006 when commercial driftnet fishing for salmon was banned many fishermen relied on reed cutting for
08:54extra earnings 20 years on i joined mike grimes and patsy peril two of a handful of reed cutters who
09:02remain after a 30 minute walk we reached the perfect spot that's top quality read it's nice and straight
09:11a good length and it's a hard read great read now for lasting on a roof and easy to work
09:17with and it's
09:18a simple thing isn't it the tools you need it's one tool it's one tool that's a sickle it's been
09:24cut
09:24by hands for hundreds of years there's a secret with the sickle as well you will lose your fingers
09:30if you don't start off being trained by an expert because the reed itself is legal it's like a razor
09:39you break it in half you know is it hard on your back uh yeah it's it's physical work yeah
09:45it's not
09:46getting any easier as we're getting older but do you love it i don't yeah i don't yeah i wouldn't
09:52want
09:52to be anywhere else the cutters got straight to it
10:03then mike showed me how it's done gather the raid with your hook and your right hand
10:08not on this one yeah so if you just kind of gather up a few there yeah gather up some
10:14yeah take your
10:14time now but you come down a bit lower maybe right and bend or have your hook kind of like
10:22like that yeah keep your read bent out so that the hook doesn't slip oh yeah oh it's satisfying
10:29the harvest season for reed is mid-november to mid-april before any new growth starts
10:35can you cut as much as as you need oh yeah well you know the more you can cut it
10:40in a season
10:42the more you know you have better read the following year because i mean for instance if
10:46that wasn't cut this year you come down next year and last just crop is still in it and it's
10:52it's no
10:53good then when there's all reading it like who wants to buy last just crop
10:58what's happening here is you could have landed here 200 years ago and you'd see the same yeah
11:03the same technique my grandfather probably caught this read really 100 years ago you know and my
11:08father would have
11:12so how many of you are left i think there's about five in the oil industry wow yeah patsy peril
11:19is 82
11:19years old he's been cutting reeds since he was 12. and when you were younger patsy how many of you
11:27would be out here cutting reeds it's all 15 boats and you're possibly two to three people involved in
11:36each boat do you think now that this is a dying art
11:42not a dying artist search a dying trade because reeds are still going up on roofs but unfortunately
11:50it doesn't appear to be irish the decline in the number of reed cutters has resulted in a supply
11:56shortage the vast majority of thatch material is now imported while the irish government gives grants
12:04to support thatching of houses there are no financial incentives to use irish grown reed
12:10instead of imported ones just even up the ends are you this tidy at home not really so that's
12:20it's your shave beautiful how much would you sell that to a thatcher for um they're double shaves
12:27so they'd be four to five euro normally they'll be smaller shaves slightly smaller than that yeah so
12:33it'll be you know two fifty three euro or whatever you know can you make good money doing this if
12:37you have an order it's hard to make good money if you're weather dependent it's seasonal basically
12:44we come down just to keep the tradition going okay and keep the good reed beds cleared
12:51on the estuary the tide had risen sufficiently for the reeds to be loaded onto the boat
12:58while myself and patsy headed for the storage compound mike took the reeds up river
13:11these flat-bottomed wooden boats known as gandalos are unique to the river shannon
13:17the ship is concave on the bottom because you use it on the mud pre-tied and post-tied you
13:26can slide
13:26that around as if you were on a ski should we give them a hand you can i will have
13:34to i'll give them a
13:35hand the reed cutters have been storing reeds at this location for generations
13:44long before flyovers were built
13:50this job done great is work fair pleasure these reeds will stay here until they're needed
13:57there are about 2 000 thatched buildings in ireland and they usually need a full re-thatch about every 20
14:04years or so i met thatcher tommy roberts at a restored hedge school cottage in newtown which he
14:13thatched in 2018. the first row put straight onto the timbers with rope then the subsequent layers
14:21are sewn on with wire and stretchers did it take long about uh two and a half to three weeks
14:28in total
14:29yeah yeah it's hard work though isn't it um well i wouldn't call it hard no it's just moving all
14:35the time like and it's yeah yeah once the weather is good it's nice work tommy only uses irish reed
14:42cut
14:42from the shannon or its tributaries in today's world when we're all kind of focusing on sustainability and
14:49keeping things with a low carbon footprint well that's really the essence of it
14:56it doesn't make any sense to me to bring reed in from some other country when we have it it's
15:03already
15:04but imported reed has been coming in i suppose for the last 30 or 40 years i would say you
15:11know
15:11from where it comes from turkey poland china
15:21most thatchers are important to read because it makes it a lot easier for the thatcher
15:25to get a load of deliveries to the house it's covered up and it's in bales and everything
15:32do you think it's likely in 50 years time there will be anyone cutting reeds here
15:36i would well when i'm gone and you know i don't think i have a lot left it's over that's
15:45about it
15:51we love our bananas every day we buy a mind-blowing one million of them
15:57that's around 75 bananas per person per year joe mulligan has been hauling bananas for 36 years
16:05and back he's got around 130 000 of them and he's just about to arrive at the face facility in
16:13balbrigan in north county dublin it's just one of 10 trucks that will be offloading here today
16:21it's just one of the biggest bananas importers in the country
16:24lorraine kinsla is the general manager tell me where these bananas come from so they come from
16:30central america so the likes of costa rica belize guatemala nicaragua majoris ecuador and you buy them
16:37off the farmers yeah so five zone a certain percentage of farms and then others we are contracted to at
16:43its
16:43busiest up to 120 people can be working here everything happens within this 10 000 square meter
16:51building chris matthews is the quality manager do you know the exact farm where these bananas came from
16:59yes the boxes have a grower code also they have a barcode that is placed onto the pallets at the
17:06farm
17:06that barcode is scanned throughout every movement of that pallets from farm through into the depot here
17:12and throughout the depot went on to the customer since the 1960s one banana has ruled the entire
17:19global market the cavendish across the world 55 million tons are growing every year it grows
17:28uniformly it's commercially acceptable so it's a good shape color ripens evenly and travels very well
17:36that's very important we bring the fruit across the atlantic ocean takes two to three weeks to come
17:41across so you want that fruit that can survive that journey the banana has one big thing going for it
17:48it can be grown year round in fact it's believed it may have been the first fruit cultivated by humans
17:56and it's productive each plant can bear up to 200 fruit to reach us in the best condition they must
18:03be
18:03harvested before any ripening has begun and then shipped in sealed containers it allows the fruit to
18:10remain dormant during that voyage it doesn't ripen they are so green yes and they're very very hard
18:17if we open up one of these and if we break that smell that does not smell like a banana
18:25that smells
18:27that smells like a cucumber cucumber yeah why so this pulp is is is made up of mostly starch at
18:34the moment
18:34and as the fruit goes through the ripening process that starch will turn to sugar you'll get that nice
18:39yellow color coming through on the fruit fives was an irish-owned company up until 2017 when it was bought
18:47by a japanese corporation as well as bananas they import pineapples and melons cairon sweeney who comes from a
18:56tillage farming background has been managing director here since 2024 we are growing and sourcing from
19:0424 000 hectares of production 2 000 farms across 15 different countries and then bringing them back
19:12into europe and into the us serving about 500 retailers worldwide so whenever you're growing up
19:17growing barley and wheat and oats did you ever anticipate that you'd be overseeing growing bananas
19:23halfway across the world certainly not no but there is you know there is a lot of uh of synergies
19:28i
19:29suppose a lot of similarities and i think when you have an understanding of what it takes to get from
19:33a tillage farm in ireland into your porridge or your breakfast cereal you have a you have a good
19:38understanding and appreciation and what it takes to get fruit from the tropics to the fruit bowl at any one
19:45time there are an astonishing seven million bananas in this building with one million coming and going each day
19:53the man in charge of getting them shop ready is emmet woods who would you believe is a third
19:59generation banana ripener my grandfather was a ripener manager way back in the dark in the in
20:06the 80s early 90s my father then took it over uh he was in a previous depot and i've taken
20:11it over to
20:12helm here that's incredible third generation yeah yeah so there's just a bit of ripening in the blood
20:17desert i think yeah blood's yellow yeah yeah we've 36 of these ripening chambers all of them are
20:23uniform each room holds about 43 tons of bananas it's very important as soon as fruit arrives into
20:29the building that we get it into these rooms once these doors are closed we then have full control of
20:33the the fruit basically bananas are like humans so they're respiring they have pores as they are
20:38starting to heat up the the pores and the banana are opening we'll come along and we'll apply an
20:43ethylene gas to the product that's done for a 24-hour period the room is locked down during this period
20:47because there's gas and pushed around the rooms yeah and after 24 hours the excess of that gas is
20:52is vented out of the building and it's safe then for a ripener to enter it ethylene gas is a
20:57natural
20:58plant hormone that triggers and accelerates ripening the entire process takes about seven days
21:05what stage are these bananas out here now these are on day three so these would have
21:09been equalized gassed and they are now very much ripening so around this time day three of the
21:15cycle the banana will go into a phase called heat explosion whereas the banana is gaining its own heat
21:20it's starting to gain its momentum and that's where a ripener steps in if these bananas are left
21:24not adjusted then bananas will take off and we will lose control of this fruit very quick
21:29and no matter how much you try you cannot get it back under control if bananas ripen too quickly
21:34there will be no market for them but companies like fives face other challenges bananas are susceptible
21:41to disease particularly the deadly panama disease a new variant with the potential to devastate the 25
21:49billion dollar cavern fish banana industry appeared in the caribbean region in 2019 from what we've seen
21:56and what we heard here today you know the vast majority of bananas are sold in ireland it's one variety
22:01and use a tillage farmer no exactly yeah of all people know how vulnerable you can be by relying on
22:06one
22:06variety yeah yeah and it's absolutely a monoculture and there is a risk associated with that and unfortunately
22:12it is the the variety and there's hundreds of varieties bananas worldwide it's the variety of bananas that
22:17travels the best tastes the best and looks the best and we are working very closely with various research
22:23institutes on alternative varieties and we have an r&d department and a chief innovation officer that
22:29works on that day in day out but at the moment that is the variety of choice
22:35but for now the only thing customers need to worry about is finding the right banana for them
22:41that tastes like a banana so does they're in the world is a wee bit divided some people like their
22:47bananas a little bit green some people like them a little bit brown question is what's your
22:51preference i am on the sweet side i think the sweet side yeah what we would call maybe stage six
22:56with very little green along the banana and starting to sugar spotted it that's my favorite
23:01so just beginning to get a wee bit brown yeah but i have a sweet tooth so
23:11well that's it for the program coming up for you next week in our final show of the season the
23:17revival
23:17of the connemara pony how did you just first get into this it's kind of a hobby that kind of
23:23got out of
23:23control producing milk and beer on one farm in monaghan we've had our ups and our downs but we're
23:32still here and we're out the door now and are bogs suitable for wind farms we do need the wind
23:38energy
23:38but for these bogs they're so important for wildlife so important for clean water that we need to look
23:45after them in a different way don't forget that this program will be repeated on sunday at lunchtime
23:50after the farming weather you can follow us and contact us on social media and you can hear
23:56more farming stories on countrywide this saturday morning on rte radio one
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