By Dan Walsh
Moyne Veterinary Hospital at Enniscorthy will host a three-day seminar on Regenerative Farming this weekend with events at the Riverside Park Hotel and at Enniscorthy Castle on Sunday. This will include a very impressive lineup of speakers from various parts of the industry and country.
This is a forum of farmers talking to farmers on how we can produce great quality food, with higher nutrient value and enhance the land. The studies on the nutrient value of the food produced on these types of farms is very encouraging.
Kicking off in the Riverside Park Hotel on Friday, May 30th, will be Mike Walsh – a college lecturer in SETU (South East Technological University) within the Masters of Science in Agriculture programme – the framework of which is Biological and Organic.
David Wallis is a former Teagasc advisor, farmer and coordinator of the DANU project. This is an EU funded 5-year study of 12 commercial farmers who began practicing regenerative or biological farming.
Tommy Tierney is a tillage farmer from Kildare and has stopped ploughing 9 years ago. He uses a ‘no till’ sower, and it has helped him reduce his costs by half – while still getting four tonnes per acre yield as before.
Bronagh O’Kane is a young beef and sheep farmer from the North of Ireland, who will give her account of the journey so far, 5 years down the regenerative road.
At last year’s seminar, father and son dairy farmers Fraser and Jonathan Rothwell, came to listen, were inspired by the speakers, and have taken up the baton in turn – they will tell their story one year into the journey. On Saturday, May 31st at Enniscorthy Castle, author and lecturer Dr Verner Wheelock will be speaking on the detrimental effects of poor food quality and how we can change it. Well known vet Tommy Heffernan will speak on the microbiome – from soil health to animal and human health. Yvanna Greene will talk on bees and biodiversity.
Sunday, June 1st will feature Alan Poole – dairy farmer ambassador of Farming With Nature – on making a difference through enhancing biodiversity. Silja Harms – herbalist – will do a workshop on how to make your own herbal salves and give a talk on common “herbal hero’s” that are all around us. The concluding speaker will be Mary Reynolds – Chelsea Flower Gold medallist, best-selling author and tireless environmentalist – on how to be “guardians not gardeners”.
There is something for everyone over the three days along with lots of fun activities for the kids with fairy tales, baby-bop, and rock ‘n’ roll dancing.
The events can be booked on Eventbrite – “Ground Rules” for Friday 30th, and “Conversations in the Castle” for Saturday and Sunday.
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