Episode 48
Country Life with MJ Clery
Thursday, 30 November 2023 - 42 minutes
On this weeks programme the fact that farm incomes are set to rebound in 2024 takes centre stage. MJ chats to Teagasc economist Trevor Donnellan about their recent economic report for agriculture. 2023 has seen farm incomes fall in most sectors with dairy seeing a huge drop in income of 60% to bring the average dairy farm income to €59,000 for the year. Adam Woods from the Irish Farmers Journal chats about a Belgian Blue heifer that made €23,500 in Carrick on Shannon this week, suckler unrest at the changing of the genomic indexes and how PGI status for our grass fed beef while beneficial is a long term play. Offaly man Jack Pilkington joins the show from New Zealand where he is on a fact finding mission for his company Agri Data Analytics Ireland Limited. Their area is that of measuring methane emissions from cattle and using this data to see what the best course of action is to minimise these going forward. With a cold snap of weather on the way there is also advice on what to do to prepare for freezing conditions on your farm.