Episode 11
Country Life with MJ Clery
Friday, 15 March 2024 - 45 minutes
On the programme this week MJ chats to Sophie Bell who documents her farming life on her social media channels. Sophie has seen a huge surge in her popularity recently with a video of her changing a puncture on the back wheel of a tractor having reached 10 million views. Sophie is also involved in a tractor driving course organised in conjunction with FRS aimed specifically for women. Aidan Brennan from the Irish Farmers Journal speaks about the challenges the weather is posing for dairy farming at the moment and also chats about the current calf trade where the weight of the calf is having a huge bearing on price. Michael Martyn an Agri Advisor based in Co. Westmeath chats about the work done over the past number of years to ensure the survival of the Grey Partridge with Lough Boora in Co. Offaly being one of the main habitats for the rare bird in the country. Laois man Declan Hanrahan from the IFA chats about the recent changes made to the ICBF ratings and how suckler farmers wont be impacted if 4 and 5 star animals lost stars in the last round of assessments, these animals will still satisfy the criteria under SCEP.
