‘Young people are leaving and they are not returning’
MARCUS STEWART often wonders what the Monaghan farming landscape will look like in 10 to 20 years’ time, given that most of his old school contemporaries are away from the land and working in cities at home or abroad.
“Young people are leaving the land and they are not going to return because they have no interest in farming,” the 29-year-old says.
“I can count on one hand the amount of lads I went to school with who are working full-time on their home farm today.
“So many are moving into the cities. It’s probably an income thing.”
The scale of the decline of interest in farming among the younger generation amazes Marcus, as does the general downgrading of rural villages in terms of services like the post offices, shops and pubs — and this should be a cause of serious concern, he says.
But for Marcus, farming — and not cities — is the name of the game. “I just love farming,” he says.
He runs a mixed enterprise of dairy, beef and sheep on owned and rented land at Drum with his father Bert. They supply milk to LacPatrick and finish their beef and sheep for the factories.
The pedigree-registered herd of Holstein-Friesians are currently producing 19 litres a day each with 3.85 in proteins and 4.35 in fats for around 32c/l plus bonuses.
Marcus describes the price as “volatile, up and down, but there is very little the farmers can do about it”.
He expects beef prices to remain volatile until the price drop caused by the culling of cattle on farms throughout the country because of the fodder crisis works its way through the system.
At the moment Marcus and Bert are beginning their sheep breeding programme which will leave them flat out next spring.
His brothers — Glenn (27) and Drew (23) — are working away from the farm. Glenn is a teacher in Belfast, while Drew “fell for a girl in Sweden” and is spending a gap year with her working as a tour guide in Iceland.
Marcus was always the farmer of the trio and completed his agricultural studies at Greenmount after leaving school.
He then spent a year on placement on a dairy farm in New Zealand, and took the scenic route back home, as the younger generation does these days.
Like all farmers in Ireland, the Stewarts had to deal with the huge swings and roundabouts of the Irish weather cycle this year.
They were spared any elec-
I CAN COUNT ON ONE HAND THE AMOUNT OF LADS I WENT TO SCHOOL WITH WHO ARE WORKING FULL TIME ON THEIR FARM TODAY
tricity outages but had to call on a neighbour during Storm Ali to help clear a fallen tree so that the milk lorry could get to the farm.
Weather aside, it is full steam ahead for the autumn farm improvements which this year includes soil testing and lime applications on the paddocks, sub soiling to improve the drainage and work with the heifers
Away from the farm, Marcus takes an interest in Macra Na Feirme and was celebrating the win of neighbour Daniel Hawthorne in the FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition.
GAA also registers on Marcus’s agenda. He was hugely disappointed that Monaghan did not get a crack at Dublin in the All-Ireland football championship final.
“We would have given it a good go even if the Dublin side is hard to beat at the moment,” he says.