Paula Hynes: Wrapping It Pink for breast cancer

Irish Examiner

23-05-2025

I mentioned in my last article that we made silage bales as part of our first cut silage and we wrapped them in pink bale wrap. We try to use pink bale wrap as much as possible every year as part of the #WrapItPink campaign, which highlights breast cancer awareness.
We source the pink bale wrap from Dairygold, who in turn use the campaign to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society. This is the 11 th year that Dairygold have been helping farmers turn the countryside pink and raising vital funds for such an important charity.
Each and every one of us knows someone who has been impacted by cancer. My mother died from cancer a number of years ago, and to this day, I still miss her so much and often think that she would have so much fun now seeing the girls out showing.
I know if she were still with us, she would be the one accompanying the girls to the UK shows and sending me back lots of photos, the Irish Cancer Society are there to help and support so many.
What I truly love about the Wrap It Pink campaign is the awareness it creates, we have so many people visiting the farm and they always ask about the pink bales stacked in the yard, and it is an even nicer sight to see big fields of pink bales. People often tell us they look like giant marshmallows.
Awareness is crucial with breast cancer, with 3,600 cases detected in Ireland every year and over 750 deaths every year. Early detection is crucial, and the reality is that if we can create enough awareness, then early detection and treatment of breast cancer would ensure every woman survives.
One in seven women in Ireland will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, 13% of whom are between the ages of 15 & 44, 26% between the ages of 45 & 54, 24% between the ages of 55 & 64, and 19% over the age of 75. Less than 10% of breast cancer cases are hereditary.
Awareness for breast cancer is so important, we women need to know what to look out for, any changes in our breasts, lumps, thickening, redness, changes in size, shape, changes in skin such as puckering or dimpling and any discharge.
If you notice any changes, it is better to be safe and consult a doctor. While we always associate breast cancer with women, it also affects men, although it is rarer, approximately 30 men a year in Ireland are diagnosed.
If you are driving around the countryside and see pink bales in a field, why not stop and take a photo and use #WrapItPink to share the message on social media.
Likewise, for my farmer readers, grab a roll or two the next time you are in the co-op and ask your contractor to wrap a few bales the next time you are cutting silage. We could easily see so many more fields full of pink bales, and with most of us on social media, we could see so many more photos of pink bales to highlight awareness.
Praying for rain
At home here on the farm, it is still like a dust bowl with a severe lack of rain, we seem to have missed any heavy showers during the week and while we are still okay for grass, the reseed we set in April is really struggling, even the weeds are slow to grow on it so we have held off on using a post emergence spray.
Hopefully, we will see rain in the coming week and looking at the forecast for our area, we will want every drop of rain that is forecast. From past experience with reseeds that struggle in dry conditions, we won't panic yet, the crucial thing once it does start to grow better is to graze tight and regular and also use watery slurry in between grazings to encourage tillering and it should straighten itself out in time.
With the grass struggling, it does leave more room for the clover to establish properly, and it should end up as a higher clover content sward. We had 16 acres of a reseed that struggled with dry weather a few years ago and management corrected it to become some of our best grazing paddocks.
Our week has consisted of agitating slurry to be spread on silage ground. Mick Hegarty has also been busy completing all the groundwork for our building project. He does all the track machine work on the farm for us and is a master at his job.
All going well, we will make a big step forward with the project next week. We are also back on the show circuit this weekend as we head to Midleton show and the Belgooly show the following Saturday.
Becky is back clipping with three animals going to Midleton, including our red and white Holstein first lactation, which we purchased at the IHFA premier sale. Robin really has taken to the halter well. She gets washed twice weekly and walks to and from the milking parlour on the halter and has also had a full pre clip so she knows her job now and seems really settled.
She has lifted her milk production and produces 43 litres a day. Fingers crossed, she will enjoy her day out at the show. While Robin has been preparing for the showing, we have also been making plans for an outing to a big show in the UK - flights are booked, and entries are complete.
The first of our June guests arrives in a week's time, the first of our French students, Emilie, and she has her show whites packed as she knows we have a busy schedule through June.
She will have ample opportunity to practice her English as we also have several guests arriving from the US later in June. With so many visitors due on the farm, we will have to stock up on some more pink bale wrap and, hopefully, make some more pink silage bales to show our visitors and get them to spread the Wrap It Pink message around the world.