RTÉ’s popular farming and rural affairs programme, Ear to the Ground, continues its groundbreaking 30th Season on Thursday, 1st December at 7pm on RTÉ One.
In Episode 4, Darragh meets a Farmer in Wexford who brings in a well drilling expert to help with his water problem. Helen spends a day with the Galway Wool Co Op at Athenry Mart.
Galway Wool
We’ve been told for years that Irish Wool has little or no value, and indeed it costs sheep farmers more to have their flocks sheared every summer, than they can ever hope to get for the fleeces their animals produce.
But in Galway, one woman is doing her level best to change all that. Blatnaid Gallagher has set up the Galway Wool Co Op with other local farmers to ensure the best price for the wool, from their sheep.
Helen Carroll spent the day at Athenry Mart where the group was holding its second Meitheal as farmers from all over the country gathered to have this year’s wool weighed and valued.
Hoping for Rain
Arthur Sweetman, from Co. Wexford has been happily using the water from a well his father
drilled over 3 decades ago, to run his 130 head dairy herd. But over the last couple of years,
the well has been producing less and less water, and this year, at the height of a drought, it
ran dry. Arthur called in a well drilling expert to find a new water source and Darragh Mc
Cullough joined them. But on the day as they drilled further and further into the dry soil on
Arthur’s farm, there was no water to be found. This is a story of both the search for new water supplies and also an awakening to the realisation that despite our temperate climate, easy access to water may no longer be taken for granted.
This season we continue to explore the issues, challenges and opportunities facing Irish farmers and rural dwellers. Ear to the Ground is produced by indiepics for RTÉ and is broadcast from November through until March.
For more information contact Production Manager, Sylvia Lynch. sylvia.l@indiepics.ie / 01 708 8188