29-05-2025
Three-day seminar on regenerative farming to take centre stage in Wexford this weekend
From Friday, May 30 in the Riverside Hotel, to Sunday, June 1 in Enniscorthy Castle, a three-day seminar to do with regenerative farming is being hosted by Moyne Veterinary Hospital, with a very impressive line-up of speakers from various parts of the industry and country.
Regenerative farming is about restoring the natural rhythms to the soil - bringing the living layer back to a vibrant and healthy balance. This humus layer when working right can hold one hundred times its own volume of water, acting as a living sponge. In the South East of Ireland, organic matter has reached an all time low of two per cent.
According to Joe Kavanagh of Moyne Veterinary Hospital: 'Farmers have seen a huge upsurge of input costs squeezing margins, with them having to milk more cows, or grow more grain. To do this they have been pushing the land, the animals, and themselves further, with more chemical inputs, higher feed bills, and spiralling costs. This is the model that many farmers have been in for quite some time.'
"There is a new breed of farmers emerging that are taking a different approach. They are looking to reduce inputs, build soil carbon, enhance the microbial life of the soil, bring back the biodiversity in our fields hedgerows, and build a new future,' he added.
As such, the event will be a forum of farmers talking to farmers on how they can produce great quality food, with higher nutrient value and enhance the land.
Mike Walsh, a college lecturer in SETU within the Masters of Science in Agriculture programme and dairy famers, will be kicking off the programme on the Friday with a talk on maximising the use of slurry using enzymes, and harnessing the farm's potential with multi-species swards.
David Wallis, a former Teagasc advisor, farmer and coordinator of the DANU project, will speak on the EU funded project which is already illustrating impressive results. According to the study, grassland farmers reduced nitrogen usage from 40 to 70 per cent, and tillage farmers reduced it by 40 per cent, fungicide usage reduced by 70 per cent, and insecticide usage by 100 per cent. through regenerative and biological farming.t
Other speakers include, tillage farmer Tommy Tierney, beef and sheep farmer Bronagh O'Kane, and father and son dairy farmers Fraser and Jonathan Rothwell.
The next day, author and lecturer Dr Verner Wheelock will be speaking on the detrimental effects of poor food quality and how to can change it. Well known vet Tommy Heffernan will speak on the microbiome - from soil health, to animal and human health, while Yvanna Greene will talk on bees and biodiversity.
Sunday will feature Alan Poole, dairy farmer ambassador of Farming With Nature, on making a difference through enhancing biodiversity. Herbalist Silja Harms will do a workshop on how to make your own herbal salves, and give a talk on common 'herbal heros' that are all around.
The concluding speaker will be Mary Reynolds, Chelsea Flower Gold medallist, best-selling author and tireless environmentalist, on how to be 'guardians not gardeners.'
