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Watch ear to the ground, Season 34 Episode 1 on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:00Hello and welcome to a new season of Ear to the Ground.
00:03We've had a beautiful summer, but not one without its difficulties for those impacted by the drought,
00:09which was experienced around many parts of the country.
00:11But with every new season comes challenges and opportunities.
00:15And over the next few months, we'll be exploring as many of them as we can, starting right now.
00:21Ella will be in Connemara, where environmentalists are working with farmers
00:25to protect and restore one of Europe's rarest habitats.
00:28We need to find that balance, where the farmers are getting what they need from it,
00:33and nature is getting what it needs from it.
00:35Dara will be in the foothills of the Dublin mountains, brushing up on his goat herding skills.
00:40No hassle.
00:42And I'll be in Monaghan, meeting a farmer, building a business, in memory of his father.
00:47Farming, I suppose, ended up taking my father's life, but only for it, I don't think.
00:53I'd be able to continue.
01:16Despite all of the advances in farming technology, when it comes to the harvest,
01:21it's still very much an all-hands-on-deck kind of affair.
01:24And today, on this farm in County Monaghan, right behind me,
01:27they're making haylage in perfect weather conditions.
01:31It's late May near Inishkeen.
01:34Haylage is an animal feed.
01:36To make it, the grass needs to be cut while it's still young and at its most nutritious.
01:41It's baleed and wrapped before it completely dries out, making it more digestible for animals.
01:48Farmer PJ Fitzsimons has built a whole business out of selling haylage.
01:53I always thought hay had to be good and dry. That's quite dewy. It's wet.
01:57Yeah, well, look, I know it's early in the morning and people will say you should probably leave it till
02:01dinner time no more when the dew is completely off it.
02:03I don't mind. Look, I'll be straight in, starting the drying process right away.
02:06I'll be in with my tethers now as soon as this man's finished hair cutting.
02:09And in the days given today, I think, look, the dew's going to be fairly off and fairly quick.
02:14See the mower coming behind us there. He's fairly motored on.
02:17He is. He's going to stand out of his way now.
02:18Better get out of his road. Let him get to work.
02:23PJ might have come up with the idea of making and selling haylage, but this business would never have happened
02:29without the help of his father, Peter.
02:33The journey to where he is today, however, is one Peter would not live to see.
02:41Back in the field, tractors have arrived to lift and turn the freshly cut grass.
02:48So I'd be turning it every day, maybe twice some days towards the end.
02:51There's a lot of work on that.
02:52There's a serious amount of work on it, but listen, at the end of the day, we want to make
02:55good quality stuff in a very short window.
02:59PJ's operation is spread across 60 acres off his own land and another 80 rented acres.
03:06He also buys haylage from local farmers.
03:10To help me understand how grass becomes haylage, we head to a field a couple of miles away that PJ
03:16cut three days earlier.
03:19If you look at the like of that there, it seems bone dry in the top, but if you look
03:23like we see on the neath, you know, it's still pure green on the neath.
03:26Still grass?
03:27Yeah, but I'll have that done in two days.
03:30At this stage, the grass will be ready to be built.
03:34PJ sells all the haylage he produces into the equine market.
03:39Haylage is ideal for horses as they can be prone to respiratory conditions that drier, dustier hay can worsen.
03:48But getting that optimal moisture content is very much dependent on the elements.
03:54After day three, when you're in it four, and especially five, you know, when you're really ready to bale,
03:59if it gets rained on and water gets in on the grass, it won't be fit for selling. It's as
04:03simple as that.
04:05The haylage remains wrapped in these large bales for up to 12 weeks to ferment.
04:10It's then broken up into smaller bales for ease of sale.
04:16Currently, PJ sells around 30,000 of these year-round, mainly across the northeast of the country.
04:23Well, I suppose the horse industry will be really particular, so they would, on the quality of their forage and
04:29feedstock and whatnot.
04:30Did you find that difficult to get into?
04:33Well, look, the father was always at hay. It was me that started the haylage and the things.
04:37But he taught me a lot over the years, and he always taught me, you know, quality over quantity.
04:43So that's a big thing that I still have in me head now. Above all else, you're feeding a lot
04:47of fancy horses and that.
04:49People is buying a premium product, so you want top quality stuff, and obviously repeat customers, good for business, and
04:57you have to keep everyone happy.
04:59We want to take out a...
05:00PJ is not a full-time farmer. He's also a woodwork teacher at a school in Cavan.
05:06He set up the haylage business with his father, Peter, in 2017.
05:14But in 2020, while dismantling a large shed they had bought from a farm in County Lowes, Peter had a
05:20horrendous accident.
05:23We were only there about a few hours, and he was walking on the roof, stripping the roof sheets, and
05:28there was power specs on the roof.
05:31Unfortunately, he fell through the sheet of power specs, and he was, you must say, he was practically killed outright.
05:39There are so many farm accidents, unfortunately, and a lot of them do involve falls.
05:44Yeah.
05:44You had planned out how you were going to take that shed down.
05:48Yeah, look, and I had a good team of people with me there that day, a lot of experienced people,
05:52and me father in particular was a very careful person, like, you know.
05:57But listen, I thought I had everything in place that day, still was enough.
06:02He tripped and fell, is what I can make from it, because he fell straight down on top of his
06:06head.
06:09I had to give him CPR.
06:13It wasn't long until the paramedics come, and they literally tried everything for him, and unfortunately they had to stop
06:19at a certain point, and we kind of knew it was all over.
06:28Farming, I suppose, it ended up taking me father's life, but only for it, I don't think, I'd be able
06:36to continue.
06:38I sort of, I buried myself back into the work, and I had to.
06:44You know, must do, it was a great master, and it's something that I just had to do, I had
06:49to continue it.
06:52How did you even have time to process what had happened?
06:56Look, did I even fully process what happened? I don't know, I just haven't really had a minute since.
07:03I'm not saying that's the way to deal with things, but it's definitely helped me continue on with things as
07:09best I can, and continue on with my father's legacy.
07:15Peter and his wife, Theresa, had built up this farm almost from scratch, in later years maintaining a herd of
07:22pedigree cemental cattle.
07:26After seeing the potential of PJ's Haley's idea, they sold the herd to finance the business.
07:33I think we'd be proud.
07:34He was a great support when you started off, wasn't he?
07:37He really, really did support you. He backed you 100%.
07:42It's nice to continue on, you know, what we set up together, but unfortunately, he's not here to see it.
07:50Yeah, yeah.
07:51To where we were talking today.
07:53Yeah.
07:54He would be so proud today. He would just, he would be just, he's there. He's with us anyway, all
08:01the time.
08:03Yeah.
08:11Harvest time is always a family affair.
08:14For PJ, his wife, Adele, and their two young children, it's a happy time.
08:21He has established a successful and growing business here, and one firmly rooted in everything his father built.
08:29How important is that family farm to you and continuing it on?
08:33It means everything. I've seen this farm as a young child.
08:41Like, there was very little here when the father started. And the father continued and built on. That all happened
08:46over years. It just didn't happen overnight.
08:48I've seen where it has come from. And I think when you experience that, I think it's very important to
08:56try your best to continue that good walk on.
09:08That's it for part one. Coming up after the break, how seaweed is being used to restore farmland in Connemara.
09:15It's got organic matter, and it will help re-vegetate the seedbed that's already in the sand.
09:20And goats on Dublin's doorstep.
09:34This is Talla, with a population of over 80,000 people. It's one of Ireland's biggest urban centres.
09:41But just up around this corner, the double mountains start, the houses stop, and it's home to one of Ireland's
09:48more unusual farm enterprises.
09:52Tim McGlynn has owned Old Court Hill Farm since 1988. When he bought these 46 acres, it was mostly being
10:00used to grow tillage crops.
10:02Things are a little different now.
10:06Morning, Tim.
10:08How are you, Darren?
10:08How's it going?
10:09You're very welcome.
10:10Two minutes ago, I was waiting at traffic lights. I mean, the houses come up to the hedge down there,
10:16basically, don't they?
10:17Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, we'll have to close the curtains very soon.
10:21It's sad people looking in, isn't it?
10:23Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:24Tim and his wife, Bridget, originally bought this land as a long-term investment, but started farming in a small
10:30way here back in 2000, with 50 laying hens.
10:34Today, they have 1,000 free-range birds.
10:38Around six years ago, they added a goat herd, and now sell their milk and cheese across the county and
10:44beyond.
10:46These two are kept free-range.
10:48They're probably a nightmare to try and round up, are they?
10:51No, as long as goats have plenty to eat, they're okay. And if you have a bucket of feed, they'll
10:57follow you anywhere.
11:00On hand to help out with this morning's milking are Jan, who works mornings, and Barry and Oisín, who are
11:06here full-time.
11:09Good dog, good dog. No hassle.
11:15Tim currently milks 82 goats.
11:19As well as selling the milk and cheese in shops and directly to customers, the farm supplies the cheese to
11:25around 30 restaurants.
11:28It's all very compact, isn't it?
11:30All very compact and very straightforward.
11:33I suppose it's one of the attractions of a goat enterprise, is you don't have to be a huge facility.
11:38You can do a lot in a small space.
11:40You can do a lot in a small space.
11:42Tim's family background lies in Donegal and Mayo, but he himself was raised in nearby Walkenstown.
11:49So, a million miles from farming.
11:52A million miles from farming, but we always went back to Donegal or Mayo.
11:56During the summer to help with the hay and the, the turf.
12:00He did a degree in Ag Science, but emerged into a very bleak economic climate.
12:07When I left in 81, there was no jobs in Ireland.
12:10Things were fairly depressed.
12:12I was saving up to go to New Zealand for Christmas, and a job in Saudi Arabia came up in
12:17September.
12:18And I thought, well, I had no big reason for going to New Zealand, so I went to Saudi.
12:22And I worked there for four years.
12:24Not long after his return, Tim and Bridget bought this farm and leased it out.
12:32While they headed to Zambia and Tanzania to work for the Irish government's aid programme.
12:39They came back to Ireland in 1996.
12:44Alongside keeping hens, the McGlins rented out allotments to local residents.
12:50The idea of milking goats only came to them in 2020.
12:54Why goats?
12:56Probably we're a small farm.
12:58We wanted to produce a niche products.
13:01I like goat's cheese.
13:03Maybe that's not a good enough reason for developing it, but I like goat's cheese.
13:06I thought there was a big market for locally produced goat's cheese.
13:11But liking cheese and making cheese are two very different things, as Tim discovered for himself.
13:19That's where Ukrainian native Nadia Ivanova comes in.
13:24Nadia came here looking for an allotment, expressed a big interest in working in the farm.
13:30And as we discovered, Nadia has a degree in food science.
13:33Happy days.
13:34I couldn't have been luckier to get such a great person working with us.
13:38Great.
13:39And Nadia has been at the cheese now for how many months, Nadia?
13:43One year.
13:44One year, and I cannot get over how lucky I am to have found somebody like that.
13:51With no children of their own, Tim and Bridget depend heavily on their staff.
13:57Oisín MacMahon and Barry Maguire first came to Old Court Farm as part of their transition
14:02year programme.
14:03Both have now completed degrees in Ag Science.
14:07You're a true blue, right?
14:08You're...
14:09Yeah, it's true blue from the city centre.
14:12My grandparents are from Bornebrina, which is also up the mountain.
14:16So that's kind of how I became the love of farming and wanted to keep that up.
14:22Yeah, and you enjoy working with stock and studied agriculture.
14:25I love it.
14:25Yeah, yes.
14:26So you're hoping to have a career.
14:29You already have a career in agriculture, right?
14:31Yeah, hopefully.
14:32Please God, I can stick at it and get my own place someday.
14:36Like, that's the plan.
14:37Was it what you did here that inspired you to go and study Ag Science?
14:41Or was Ag Science always something you had in your...
14:44I think so.
14:44I kind of went away from agriculture a bit.
14:47But then did the TY here and went and said,
14:50I'll do it in college, yeah.
14:52So, rekindled a little bit, I suppose, when I came back, yeah.
14:57Tim has recently added two new products to the farm's Dublin Hills range, yogurt and kefir,
15:03and is now also looking at the export market.
15:07Is this a viable business to hand on to somebody else?
15:12I'm confident that it can be made a viable business.
15:15At the moment, the Goat Enterprise, they're paying the bills, but that's about it.
15:19But the fact that there's a big population close by, we would hope to tap into that and open a
15:26farm shop.
15:27A lot of people are coming to buy from the farm directly anyway.
15:29So, we might as well open a farm shop and have it a bit more organised.
15:34It looks like a very busy time ahead for the McGlins, but with Tim reaching the pension age last year,
15:41the couple are also looking to take a small step back from the day-to-day running of the business.
15:47We're going to continue to farm. Bridget and myself are very happy living here.
15:51I would love the workload to be reduced and develop the farm in such a way that we can hand
15:56it over to somebody else to manage.
15:59I'd be quite happy to hand it over.
16:01And we kind of take a back seat, maybe take an allotment myself and look on somebody else working.
16:14From here in southern Connemara to the northern tip of Scotland, a patchwork of unique habitat exists known as Mocker.
16:24Found nowhere else in Europe, this rare coastal ecosystem is under severe threat from agricultural practices and erosion accelerated by
16:34climate change.
16:36Since 2022, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has been running a project to protect and restore the network of
16:44eight Mocker systems in North West Ireland.
16:47Ethna Davis from the NPWS is the project leader.
16:51Ethna, it's kind of strange being here because back in 2012, this was the Mocker. I mean, that is the
16:58top of it.
16:59Yeah, that would be underground.
17:01Yeah. What happened?
17:02This whole area would have been very vulnerable due to a combination of factors.
17:07It's a fragile habitat anyway, but there would have been a lot of heavy overgrazing on this site and many,
17:12many other sites up and down the country.
17:13That's not unique to here, but that left this area exposed and vulnerable.
17:18So then a series of very heavy weather events that came through would have gradually eroded away at that.
17:24So one small blowout in this kind of an area, the wind and the rain can get traction and begin
17:29to scour and just demolish the place.
17:34Here in Mervy in Galway, the restoration of the Mocker is being led by Mark Reid.
17:40What is unique about it? What defines it?
17:42OK, so what's quite unique about it is that it's derived from windblown sand, which has come off the sea.
17:47And so the substructure is very much just sand. There's not much soil in the top.
17:52It's got a very shallow root system in the plants. So there's not much holding it together.
17:56You find plants which are very salt tolerant. They can handle all the winds and they can handle all the
18:01salt.
18:01So the Mocker plants will provide food for pollinators and insects. And in turn, the insects and pollinators become food
18:09for birds.
18:10And then you also have mammals. You'll have hares. There's lots of hares found on Mocker. You'll have foxes. You'll
18:15have badgers.
18:16So there's a whole suite of animals which use the Mocker plain as somewhere to live and somewhere to feed
18:21and somewhere to breed.
18:27Josie Mannion and his daughter Lainey are two of the farmers participating in the Life on Mocker project.
18:34Their family has been farming sheep and cattle on land bordering the Mocker at Mervy for generations.
18:41We have not big farms, no big fields, but it is doing us. We always brought up with it. And
18:47we know how to manage it.
18:49How have things changed since you were little?
18:51It's changing off a lot because the weather pattern has gone different completely.
18:58There's a lot more rain. More rain coming in now off the sea.
19:01And is it more challenging to farm?
19:03Oh, by far, by far, by far.
19:08Tell me about the Mocker. I mean, when you were younger, would it have been something you were aware of?
19:13Yeah, well, it wasn't called that. To us it was the beach and it was the sand dunes and we
19:18used to go back there and play football.
19:19But like, I just remember from when I was young that there was a lot of life there, there was
19:24a lot of grass there.
19:25And then over the years it's, you know, it's eroded and the storms have kind of taken it away and
19:29certain aspects of agriculture have taken, you know, its toll on it.
19:34This six year long life on Mocker project was developed to work with farmers, landowners and local communities to protect
19:42and restore the land here.
19:45In 2022 when the project first started, a meeting was held and sort of the hard truths were spoken about.
19:54And it became apparent that the sheep and the stock just had to come off because this land wasn't going
20:00to regenerate with the stock still on it.
20:02So in November 22 all the stock came off and then we started working with the farmers on fairly small
20:08scale regeneration.
20:10And what we're trying to do is trap the sand and slow the sand moving around the site and then
20:15slowly but surely the vegetation comes back by itself.
20:18A key measure used to protect the Mocker is chestnut fencing. It acts as a windbreaker and physical barrier, trapping
20:26windblown sand and building up protective dunes.
20:31Seaweed is also being used as a natural organic fertilizer and soil stabilizer.
20:38Nia Votul, a project officer with Life on Mocker, has been working with local farmers to source and spread the
20:45seaweed in targeted areas.
20:46It's really windy and I suppose the sand is constantly moving. Will the seaweed move over the next couple of
20:53weeks?
20:54Potentially if we get really strong winds but we are just spreading it at a height from about 15 to
21:0020 centimeters.
21:02And that way sand will blow into the area and help stabilize it.
21:07And basically it's got organic matter and it will help revegetate the seedbed that's already in the sand.
21:18University of Galway student and project member Sylvia Cascown has been observing the physical changes in the Mocker landscape over
21:26time.
21:27Right now we have around like five hectares of what was bare sand before. Now it's completely vegetated.
21:34but also we have a lot of the area that before was very like sparse.
21:40And now actually you can see that the vegetation is way more dense and you have a richness of wild
21:45flowers.
21:45The plants have the possibility to flower and to fruit.
21:48It's amazing to see like there is not much now but you can see like so many different flowers and
21:54it's beautiful to see.
21:55And that's the sign of a healthy Mocker.
21:58The impact of restoring the Mocker here in Mervy reaches well beyond the local area.
22:05Look it's really hard to bring something back that's gone in any context.
22:09But what we will have is a much more resilient coastline along here that will protect the land inside in
22:15the face of increased storminess.
22:17which we all know and see on an annual basis is coming through more and more regularly.
22:23As work continues in Mervy to restore the Mocker, farming is returning too but with some changes.
22:30If you don't have grazing the strong grasses get too dominant and you lose your diversity.
22:36You lose, you get less plants, you get a lot of strong grasses and eventually it will turn to scrub
22:40and it will be no good to anyone.
22:41So you need grazing. Farmers need to be here.
22:45We need to find that balance where the farmers are getting what they need from it and nature is getting
22:50what it needs from it.
22:54This is home and I want to protect it and it's been in our family for such a long time
22:58and I want that to continue.
23:01It's starting to come back to life in a lot of ways which is really exciting to see.
23:06And just with that small bit of effort over the last couple of years we've really made a difference.
23:16That's it for this week. Next week on Ear to the Ground.
23:20Saying goodbye to five generations of dairy farming in County Lowes.
23:23The cattle have brought us together but it's the people that's important and make no mistake this is a very
23:30happy day for me.
23:31Keeping a farming tradition alive on an island in Loch Rhee.
23:35Who'd want to go and leave the farm out in the middle of Loch Rhee.
23:39You have to be cut out for the job.
23:42And I'll be getting fruity in Wexford.
23:44We grew lovely blackberries but we couldn't pick them.
23:47We're so torny.
23:48This programme will be repeated on Sunday at lunchtime after the farming weather.
23:53You can also watch on the RTE player.
23:56And you can hear more farming stories on Countrywide on Saturday on RTE Radio One.
24:01We're so torny.
24:04We're so torny.
24:05We're so torny.
24:07We're so torny.
24:10We're so torny.
24:12We're so torny.
24:14We're so torny.
24:15We're so torny.
24:15There you go.