FARMING For the love of farming and donkey work

For the love of farming and donkey work


Food matters
Chris Brown

I have no background in farming. I was brought up in a town, but ever since spending some time as a child on my Great-Uncle Laurie’s farm on the Isle of Man, I knew I wanted to be a farmer.
Back then, everything in the countryside was just so obviously brilliant and interesting to my young mind: The smells of the sheds, the sounds of the animals, the fact that everything seemed so massive and fascinating. Things like tractor attachments and trees and sheep had me mesmerised.   
Fortunately, ever since I’ve gone to actually live on a farm as an adult, my enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed, and I take great delight from living in the countryside. The fact that County Mayo is such a stunningly beautiful place helps enormously; and for sure I’d rather be woken up by the cockerel than by the sound of the traffic any day.
As jobs go, farming has a big advantage in that when you get up in the morning you are already at your workplace. This is a real perk, it buys you some time to get an early start, and get doing those things that need to be done.
But doing what? As there is little in the way of an instruction book to tell you about managing land, I’ve needed to learn as I’ve gone along; by observations, advice from other farmers and from mistakes. The fact that some of the sheep got into the vegetable garden last week and troffed all the winter cauliflower and swiss chard in the time it took to eat a Sunday breakfast (the bollixes), means I am still not ready to take off my ‘L’ plates just yet!
In simple terms you have to make sure that the animals in your care are fit and safe and well looked after. This, it seems, involves carrying buckets, opening and closing gates and pushing a wheelbarrow pretty much seven days a week. So there’s another bonus – you get plenty of fresh air and exercise.
Then there is the crops you are cultivating. Plants also need to be fit and healthy. The main crop out here on the western side of Ireland is almost entirely grass and other herbage (such as clover), grown for animals.
Oats, which are fabulous foodstuff (ask any nutritionist) have sadly all but disappeared, and old varieties from Mayo, such as ‘potato oats,’ may well be extinct.
The fabric of the fields
A journey through the countryside will show fields of all different colours and textures, from level carpets of even-coloured green, to rocky slopes of heather and furze (gorse bushes). Sometimes they are side by side. What sets them apart is the amount of work that has been undertaken by the farmer.
Thistles, nettles, docks, rushes and briars (blackberry vines) are just some of the plants you do not want to find colonising the ground. Worse again would be the disastrous Gunnera (giant rhubarb) that is playing havoc up in Achill Island and other areas of North Mayo, by taking hold and smothering everything in its path. Cattle and sheep need to find food on the fields and there is no better sight for a grazing animal than a plump mound of sweet grass. But it is a constant battle to keep the weeds back and keep the grass in good form.
A weed is a plant that grows where you don’t want it to; and weeds replace animals’ grazing space. So, if the grass gets covered in thistles, which sheep will not eat, the amount of animal food available on the ground shrinks.
I am currently trying out two donkeys who love to eat thistles and amazingly don’t get hurt by the sharp spikes of this very prickly plant. I don’t know if this will ultimately prove successful, and they are definitely taking their time about it – but then, the pace of life is something else I enjoy about the countryside.

Chris Brown is a food producer in Louisburgh. He has a particular interest in food miles and buying local.