The Farmers Journal team of farmer writes journalists from Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and beyond are dedicated to providing local farming news, comment and opinion across the dairy, beef & tillage sectors.

LATEST ARTICLES
News
Farmer Writes: every farm gets a run of bad luck
Tommy Moyles
A super spring and straightforward calving season ran into a stumbling block over the last week for Tommy Moyles' on his farm in west Cork but at least the sun was shining.
Farmer Writes: every farm gets a run of bad luck
Farmer Writes: grass is flying it
16 April 2025 Farmer Writes
Farmer Writes: grass is flying it
All cows are calved now, and they’re on 4kg of a breeder nut along with an allocation of 17kg DM of grass.
Plans scuppered in another busy spring
16 April 2025 Farmer Writes
Plans scuppered in another busy spring
Fermanagh farmer John Egerton had hoped he might be able to avoid the lambing shed this spring
Farmers Writes: stock out and slow grass growth
As Karen McCabe gets ready put the remaining stock out to grass, she muses on the passing of time and learning on job.
9 April 2025 Farmer Writes
Cold nights keep herd part-time grazing
Castlederg dairy farmer Jessica Pollock has had cows out at grass since the second week of March.
9 April 2025 Farmer Writes
Farmer Writes: a brief history of fertiliser spreaders
As Gerald Potterton gets through plenty of spreading and spraying in the fine weather, he takes a look at the technological advances of fertiliser spreaders.
9 April 2025 Farmer Writes
Farmer Writes: hoping for a better year than 2012
James Strain reflects on some of the similarities between the start of this year and 2012, but hopes for a much different ending.
2 April 2025 Farmer Writes
Farmer Writes: old cow for the hard road and calf for the bottle
The ruthlessness of nature revealed itself at the weekend as one of the more experienced campaigners in Tommy Moyles' suckler herd put herself first.
2 April 2025 Farmer Writes
New venture into rearing dairy-beef calves
Co Down farmer, Derek Robinson, has bought some Hereford-cross drop calves.
2 April 2025 Farmer Writes
Farmer Writes: removal of quotas was a turning point
Looking back, it’s hard to believe that milk quotas have been gone for nearly 10 years, writes Padraig Callanan.
26 March 2025 Farmer Writes
Farmer Writes: spring has finally sprung
Having a few dry weeks to start March off is wonderful, as the farm jobs can be done with gusto, in the hopes of a good year.
26 March 2025 Farmer Writes
Farmer Writes: sowing a pleasure in a dusty March
While this weather was very welcome, it could be overdone and a rise in temperatures would be nice.
26 March 2025 Farmer Writes