A farmer’s life in a changing industry

SLIGO IFA PRESIDENT JP CROWLEY TALKS TO EDITOR JENNY MCCUDDEN ABOUT THE ISSUES FACING FARMERS IN THIS REGION AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO COMBAT PROBLEMS IN AN INDUSTRY THAT FEELS EXTREMELY VULNERABLE AT PRESENT.

BORN into a farming family in Rathlee, West Sligo JP Cowley was always going to follow in his father’s footsteps. His love of the outdoors and farming began as a child and despite recent hardships and future uncertainties in an industry that is at best vulnerable, he could not imagine another way of life.

Set among the rolling green fields of the West Sligo coast, his 40 acre farm spreads from his Rathlee home all the way to the Atlantic. His modest bungalow is situated next to the village caslte, which was a look out tower during the 18th century.

The picturesque ruins stand tall today over seeing the hard graft that JP does as a rural farmer. The suckler herd farmer is one of many in this region. In fact, about 75 percent of all farmers are beef producers across the county. JP is current- ly two years in to a four year term as Sligo IFA President, a role that he is thoroughly enjoying.

“I have 44 commercial cows and 10 pedigree cows. The beef industry has changed dramatically for farmers in the past five years in particular as we are not getting the same money for our produce,” he says.

Put simply, weight limits on cattle being killed in factories mean farmers now have to sell their animals lighter and get less money. JP explains: “It’s down to the supermarket chains not wanting large carcas weights, so the meat being sold to supermarkets has to be of a lighter weight.

“The live export business is also not as bouyant as it was so we have to rely mostly on the home market for our calves.

“There are not as many big exporters anymore, so the competition is not there. Exporters buy our stock in the mart, but there are only about two main exporters at the moment nationwide.”

JP laments the recent changes in the industry.

“I started 35 years ago, I built my herd of cows, using the best genes that I could and I’m being penalised for that now because for those top quality calves there is not as many customers there for them.

“Once upon a time for an autumn born 500kg calf you had buyers from Northern Ireland, a live exporter to send them away to Spain or Italy, you had two or three buyers as feed lots for finishing them, you had four or five customers for the one calf, that has dropped to maybe one, that is taking away the competition.”

So is there any hope on the horizon for sucker herd farmers? JP admits that it is unlikely that things will improve. On the contrary in the immediate term, with Brexit banging on the door, farmers in this region are fearing the worst. Pedigree cows is another side of his business.

“Every side of farming is getting harder all the time. You have to try and keep on top of the situation. You have Brexit just around the corner and no one really knows what’s going to be the end game with that.

“My immediate concerns are that out of the 17 percent of Irish products in total going to the UK , 50 perecent of that is our beef and dairy products so I would worry about that going forward. The UK gets most of their beef from Ireland.

“When article 50 is triggered and England goes their own way, they may have trade agreements with other countries such as America, Argentina and Brazil for beef at a cheap price. There would be a tarrif on our beef going into the UK, which would leave it a useless market with high tarrifs.”

The only saving grace for the Irish beef industry, according to JP is the exceedingly high quality. As he stresses: “We have