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CountryWide

RTÉ Radio 1

The CountryWide team feature the events, people and happenings that bring colour and life to communities, towns and villages across Ireland. Listen live Saturdays at 8am on RTÉ Radio 1.

54 episodes
Avg 12 min
English

Episodes 54

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Saturday · 25 min
Food Security: Bread
Only the tiniest fraction of the flour needed to bake the 50kg of bread we eat a year is grown and milled in Ireland, and the cost of what we import is sky rocketing. We take a look at what needs to be done to keep the price of bread down by making it here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Saturday · 13 min
EU Female Organic Farmer of The Year
Following her victory in the EU's most prestigious organic award we visit Kay O'Sullivan at home on Glynn Organic Farm in North Cork. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 26 · 6 min
Nest Protection Officer Training Programme
Ireland's first certified Nest Protection Officer Training Programme was recently launched by Ministers Martin Heydon and Christopher O'Sullivan. It was developed by Owen Murphy and Donal Beagan of the publicly funded Breeding Waders EIP, with the training body Lantra, and supported by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture. Donal Beagan spoke about how this new qualification sets a professional standard for the first time. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 26 · 10 min
Agriland/ICMSA Farmer Survey: Panel
The survey was commissioned by Agriland and the ICMSA, and it shows it isn't only older farmers who want out. One in five farmers in their late forties and early fifties, which is young in this business, say they're likely to leave. Half of those planning to exit have no successor lined up. Yet the same survey says access to land is one of the biggest barriers for people trying to get into farming. So why aren't those leaving and those wanting in finding each other? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 26 · 5 min
Agriland/ICMSA Farmer Survey
During the week, a major new survey was published which suggests there will be an exodus of farmers in the next few years. In a comprehensive survey of Irish farmers - with 2,300 people responding across every sector and county - one in three farmers say they will leave farming within the next five years. Della Kilroy reports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 26 · 10 min
Agriland/ICMSA Farmer Survey: Panel
The survey was commissioned by Agriland and the ICMSA, and it shows it isn't only older farmers who want out. One in five farmers in their late forties and early fifties, which is young in this business, say they're likely to leave. Half of those planning to exit have no successor lined up. Yet the same survey says access to land is one of the biggest barriers for people trying to get into farming. So why aren't those leaving and those wanting in finding each other? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 26 · 7 min
School Cycle Bus
Approx 5% of Irish children cycle to school every day. One idea trying to change that is the school cycle bus. It's a group of primary school children led by adult volunteers along a set route. Regan Hutchins joined the Skibbereen Cycle Bus in County Cork, to show it's a fun way to start the day. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 26 · 5 min
Natural Horsemanship
Paul Walker is well known in the business for breeding, training and trialling sheepdogs. Now the Chilean-English trainer has turned his hand to horses at the home he shares with his partner Leah Henry in Mayo. Lorna Siggins reports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 26 · 7 min
Seeds of Inspiration
For a quarter of a century, John McKeon has been collecting seeds from the trees and hedgerows around his home near Castleblayney in Monaghan. The 75-year-old retired agricultural adviser has used them to grow more than twenty species of native tree, among them oak, holly, hazel and more. John's work is at the heart of 'Seeds of Inspiration', a project from the Irish Wildlife Trust and the Monaghan Biodiversity Office. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 19 · 6 min
Apple Season
If any of you have an apple tree in a park near you, on your farm or garden, you’ll notice how early the apples have appeared - very early. Con Traas's parents, Willem and Ali, came from Holland in 1967 looking for land to grow fruit. They found a farm with an old orchard in Tipperary, and the family has been growing apples there ever since. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 19 · 7 min
National Ploughing Championships - Angus calves
This week, five secondary schools, from Donegal to Cork, were presented with an Aberdeen Angus calf to bring home and rear. It's all part of the Certified Irish Angus schools' competition, which asks students to do a research project on farming. 180 schools entered this year, and the finalists collected their calves at the Ploughing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 19 · 7 min
National Ploughing Championships - Lamb Shearing
The All-Ireland Lamb Shearing Championships took place at the Ploughing this week when Ireland’s fastest and most skilled sheep shearers - ranging from juniors upwards - were put to the test. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 19 · 9 min
National Ploughing Championships - Young Innovators
At the National Ploughing Championships, young agri start-ups had a chance to pitch for Enterprise Ireland awards, and Suzanne Campbell met three of these companies as they tried to catch the judges' attention, each trying to win one of the overall prizes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 19 · 14 min
Minister Christopher O'Sullivan
Ireland sends its plan for restoring nature to Brussels, so how much public money will be allocated to it, and what will it ask? Minister for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan joined us to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 12 · 8 min
Sheepshead Walk
A lot of this vision of a more "open access" Ireland might seem unachievable. But there is an example of farmers opening up access to the public and everybody getting along. The Sheepshead Way was created 30 years ago this year – securing agreement from 265 different landowners to open up all the old mass paths, holy well paths, to school through the fields paths and connect them all together into a six day hike. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 12 · 14 min
South Kerry Greenway
This morning we took a a closer look at the kind of access to the countryside that the state is actually investing in; Greenways. 350 km of Greenway has been built in the last 5 years, and there are plans to build out a network of paved cycling paths that will be ten times that long. But, along the South Kerry Greenway, compulsory Purchase of land from farmers who say they were open to granting access to cross their farms without being forced to sell has generated conflict. Cleona O'Shea, chairperson of the National Greenway Action Association discusses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 12 · 14 min
'The Pathless Land: Finding A Way Across Ireland'
Tim Hannigan is a Cornish born Travel Writer so as somebody who grew up with a right to roam the countryside, the thing about living in Ireland that he can’t get his head around is the comparatively limited access to the countryside that we settle for here. So he set himself the challenge of walking through Ireland’s heartlands - from one side of the island to the other - without trespassing to see how much of the journey could be completed off road. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 12 · 7 min
Donald Trump touches down in Ireland
Ahead of President Trump's arrival to Ireland, RTÉ News Correspondents Brian O'Connell, Colman O'Sullivan and Elizabeth Hearst brought us the latest updates live from this morning. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 5 · 7 min
Can organic farming provide buffer against weather extremes?
Amanda Galvin is running an organic sheep and tillage enterprise not too far from Tullamore. She hasn’t dipped in to any of her winter fodder, her fields are notably greener than her neighbours and her ewes actually need to lose a bit of the weight they’ve put on over the summer before she puts them to the ram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 5 · 12 min
Do we need more drought-resistant pasture to adapt to hot and dry weather?
The creamery Tirlan surveyed 800 of its farmers last week – and over 80% of them said that they had already fed several week’s worth of what they should be feeding in December and January. And 90% said that there was barely any grass in their animal’s diet now. Head of Dairy Knowledge at the farming research agency Teagasc, Joe Patton joined the programme to share findings of a survey that gauged how deep the shortage of winter fodder is going to run this year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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