Great video George, due to past and current agricultural practices we turned our beautiful countryside into a green desert. I gave up shooting a good few years ago as where i live every single ditch that could be removed was removed and the decline in game was unbelievable, aong with it many other forms of wildlife such as songbirds etc. i can remember a shooting man saying when we joined the EEC in the 70s and when the first JCB diggers entered the fields that it was all over even back then!!. A great shooting tradition in this country with once an abudance of game sadly has had it day and now will be consigned to history and memory.
There needs to be more exposure for crises like this George, well done. I fished at a local spot recently. Last year, I had to climb 3 stiles over ditches to access, but now I was able to walk directly alongside a newly planted field. All ditches had been removed, and planting was as close to the river as possible. This particular farm is leased to a big contractor, and I think you'll find this is what's happening with a lot of leased land - bottom line is all that matters.
Thanks George, hugely informative video although sad to see the decline in such stark relief. I often complain about overregulation in business, but for sure we need it to save us from ourselves. Left to our own devices, man is a most destructive force.
very important video 👍I’ve seen it in west Kerry with the proliferation of dairy farms and the loss of woodcock habitat and in Kildare with the clearing of ditches and rushy fields
Hi, I just trained my Springer to hunt, I've started to think more of trying to photograph birds as I've noticed the same in Mayo and Wexford. Duck numbers are down, less pheasants.
Hi George, I think you have captured the mood of most shooting men and women all over Ireland. IIf this continues wild game bird shooting will be a thing of the past. Have been following you since the springerspanielfull days and enjoy the videos. Keep on telling it like it is.
Very good analysis George the guts have been ripped out of the country side for export. we are not consuming the amount of milk as a nation we are sending it to the glanbia plants turning it to powder and exporting it to the middle east.meanwhile our government are encouraging this and providing a grant to for capital gain export charges.
Sad state of affairs there, such a shame but as you say money, in this case milk money. It’s not progress in my mind more short term greed, with no return. Feel for you George in this, upsetting and your way of life turned over. Thanks for posting, it can’t have been easy, however you have got the story out in a very informative way. Good luck going forward, and hopefully things will be better for the Emerald Isle. 👏👏👏
Good man George for highlighting this issue we spoke about something similar happening to our rivers at a recent show .Removing or ditches also leads to runoff getting into or rivers quickly I think we need a policy change more than anything but unfortunately we keep voting the same crowd in so probably only ourselves to blame .On a positive note you have a great channel that I look forward to viewing. Go raibh maith agat.
Terrible!!!! what's happing great video to explain in simple terms whats happing unfortunately it's only getting worse and worse and in a few years from now everywhere will be the same 😤
again George great (but sad) and informative video, the Irish are just sitting on their arses doing nothing about the decline, not just in hunting, but in our culture and identity and our homeland as a whole and all at the hands of a few who've sold their country and people out.
So sad and frustrating to see this all over the country. Same happened when the sugar factories closed down and the beet fields disappeared overnight. It was such a good rotation crop, benefitting both the land and wildlife
The same thing happened here in Shropshire in the 1960s when i was a kid. The hedges were bulldosed and the oak trees felled to make the fields suitable for large combines and tractors. Then came pesticides and ddt which decimated the hares, the lack of insects put paid to the grey partridge population. Its really hard to see curlew and peewits as well as skylarks. The sad fact is big farming equals little wildlife,and if the eu plans production for the nation , farmers will take the money and do whatever is required to make money. So sorry its happened over there now❤.
Same here with us. Where we live if they didn't intensively rear pheasant and duck, which brings its own problems, they'd have nothing to shoot! The lands dying allright.
Slightly different in east wicklow. . .ponds, rivers and ditches being pulled out of it for development/housing. .I used buy a sack of peanuts and wild birdseed every few months. . I wouldn't use a tenth of that now
I feel sorry for you George , you are a genuine hunting and gun dog man. The same thing is happening here in the southeast as well. I have phoned several people in Tegasc about the habitat loss on Irish dairy farms and i have only got lies and denial as responses. A dairy advisor told me there that Irish dairy farms contain 27 percent biodiversity on their farms. I was told that Irish farms are the most carbon neutral in the world. All the politicians are well versed to argue against culling the national herd. The Agri and food sector holds a lot of power in policies in here in Ireland. Politicians are paid off what to say. I think what will catch out the Agricultural sector is the water quality issue once the Environmental Protection Agency comes under pressure to test rivers streams and reservoirs around Ireland. Also carbon sequestration in planting small woodlands and restoring wetlands might reverse the damage done in the last few years. I know in 2030 the EU is changing the Common Agricultural policy to be more green. Time will tell how all this plays out. Well lads we will all live to fight another day! We will have to speak out!
Don't let the hunting slide though I can certainly see the issue. You must be able to knock up a rabbit or pigeon some where. Thoroughly enjoy the videos
Big changes and not good at all George. That's not happening up my way but all our rough spots and a lot of not rough spots are all planted with forestry. Another form of desert. Have you noticed that cow dungs which used to be covered with flies now have none?
I totally agree. As a full time farmer I'm well aware of the needless destruction of habitat for insignificant 'profit'. Though it's vastly more complicated than just simply wanton destruction. My father received EEC (eu) grants to drain bogs and remove scrub ground. The eu agenda at the time was "cheap food for all eu citizens" without any other consideration. When satellite photos were used to determine the 'usable' land, they purposely neglected to pay grants for land with trees, gorse, etc. stating that that land could not be considered agriculture and aided farmers to remove habitats. This mentality is sadly still prevalent. Without eu grants 95% of farms would be loss making. The moment any country joined the eu, Our habitats and wildlife were irreparably damaged by accountants and bureaucrats who neither lived near, understood or cared for the wildlife and environment. There are many other things contributing to this issue ie machinery modernisation, herbicides, general ignorance of farmers, etc. But in my opinion the Single Farm Payment Scam (Scheme) is the single biggest factor to the destruction of wildlife and habitats. And it began 35 years ago without any objections from politicians or the general public.
I would agree with you what you say above , Ireland s agricultural policy is completely a profit driven one , it fails to safe guard our nature water quality and biodervesity. Its also fails as we import cheap vegetables poultry from other eu countries. All other food producing sectors are financially struggling thanks to eu cheap food policy. So our food security is vulnerable as the concentrate on funding big dairy producers that are currently taking over the land
Hang in there George. In this crazy world of legislation led farming soon they’ll be being paid to put the wildlife corridors back in and because they get money for it they’ll do it. Whether you’re allowed to shooting there is another question.
A very sad story George. In the past we in the Netherlands also had about 225.000 km (that's more than 140.000 miles!) of hedgerows/ditches The introduction of barbed wire and agricultural progres put an end to that in the Netherlands. With the disappearence of the hedges and habitat we lost a lot of wildlife. Another point: we've got a problem with the amount of nitrogen deposits in our natural parks and reserves. Our dairy farmers are held responsible which has led to drastic measures by the goverment and demonstrations by farmers. Plan is to buy out a couple of hundred dairyfarms and pig farms.This to restore the ecological balance in the countryside on one side and to take away the pressure from other nitrogen producing activities (construction, airtraffic etc) I imagine this can also be a future for your part of Ireland. But times are a changing. The European Commitee has decided that before 2030 no less than 10% of the landscapes in Europe must consist of natural connections in the form of hedges, natural waterbanks, coppice and marshlands. So speak up: create awareness and get support from goodwilling landowners, local shooting clubs, birding groups, political parties and municipalities. Because in the end: without habitat no shooting
Under Irish law hedgerows can be removed but must be replanted what ever length it is else were on the farm the law is there to protect hedgerows it's not being enforced. The reason why hedgerows are being cut down to four high is to let the drying in which is a ridiculous stupid idea which I completely disagree with are part of the country were agriculture has become more intensive due to dairy expansion but there are area's that have become less intensive but sadly now with the changes to the nitrates derogation dairy farmer's are moving into these areas to rent more land so as to delute there stocking rates on paper dairy cow produces 95kg of organic nitrogen a year stocking rate under derogation is 220kgs/ha/year so you can do the math old stocking rate was 250 and 85kg of organic nitrogen per cow per year so in order to keep the same numbers cows more land is needed which turn is having a massive impact on less intensive dry stock farming systems sheep, suckler
@@springerspanielful well there is a agri environmental scheme called acres opend up there's funding for 50,000 farms took in 46,000 last year only taking 4000 this year but could be 15, 000 to 20,000 looking to get in hedgerow planting coppicing laying tree planting wild bird fodder plots some of the measures in the scheme but government are only going to let in 4000 there is a will at farm level if properly supported to do good it is hard though to ignore the profitability of dairying if one has the land area and family to support.
