Gerald Potterton

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Articles

Farmer Writes: there is pleasure in keeping busy during the winter

2 months ago | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

The four winter months after the autumn drilling are obviously a quiet time on a farm such as ours. There’s nothing happening in the tillage fields and with nothing waiting to happen, which is good and unlike this time last year. While we have cattle housed, feeding is quick, particularly this year as we’ve reverted to pit silage. And I’m glad we have – it’s cheaper to make, nicer to feed and much less stinking plastic. Now if I may digress for a moment.
Farmer writes: the road less travelled

Jan 15, 2025 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

I don’t know about Google Maps. You can still get lost. Recently I had to visit a farm near Rhode, Co Westmeath. Now I know how to get to Rhode. It’s easy – just straight down the N4 to Milltownpass (or is it Rochfortbridge?) and hang a left. Long ago, I used to go down there regularly for Ford tractor parts to the late Tim O’Sullivan. But, rather than mess around with my memory, I had an Eircode for the farm and stuck it into the phone leaving home. Fool that I was.
Farmer Writes: shiny new machinery a slippery slope

Dec 4, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

The FTMTA in Punchestown in the early days of November was, to my mind, a good show but no better than that. I wasn’t too buzzed about going but felt it should be supported. After all, it’s only an hour’s drive and I hadn’t a better idea to spend a few hours in November. However, there were very few small component suppliers’ stands, which are often the most interesting. I’m not really interested in shiny tractors anymore, and so I thought the show was slightly disappointing.
Farmer Writes: land ownership has been a touchy subject

Nov 21, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

It’s akin to asking a farmer about their sex life or how they deal with nighttime flatulence. You simply don’t ask this sort of question. Well, not generally anyhow, except maybe in Bruno McCormick’s workshop where nothing is sacred or off-limits, particularly of a carnal or scatological nature (Google it). Which is all great fun, but even in that irreverent company there is still one question you just don’t ask.
A Farmer Writes: land ownership has been a touchy subject

Nov 20, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

It’s akin to asking a farmer about their sex life or how they deal with nighttime flatulence. You simply don’t ask this sort of question. Well, not generally anyhow, except maybe in Bruno McCormick’s workshop where nothing is sacred or off-limits, particularly of a carnal or scatological nature (Google it). Which is all great fun, but even in that irreverent company there is still one question you just don’t ask.
Farmer Writes: the tillage sector is very far from dead

Nov 6, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

What incredible weather we have had for the past two months. It’s been a while since we had an autumn as good as this, but I do remember 2018 being similarly pleasant and, strangely, it too had a named storm in the middle of October (Callum). There’s nothing nicer than a good autumn, and it’s been terrific for fieldwork and the head and everything else. Sown crops have emerged in two weeks which is quick, and the fields are a picture.
Farmer Writes: the plough is falling out of favour

Oct 23, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

The poor old plough is getting a lot of stick recently, and indeed sometimes in this column – but the plough is a survivor. It’s been around for thousands of years, ever since an entrepreneurial Neolithic man tied one end of a rope around his missus and the other to a branch which he held in the ground and told her to pull hard. Granted the work was rough, looking more like today’s min-till, but that’s how it began.
Would I make a move to strip-till?

Oct 9, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

In the book, Warrenstown Remembered there’s a lovely black and white photograph from 1962 captioned ‘The Boys hit Dublin’. It is a picture of a group of Warrenstown students from that year, somewhere in the city centre, probably about to go on a tear. In keeping with the period, all the lads wear jackets and most wear ties, in various states of dishevelment. But there is one student who very clearly stands out as a striking figure.
Farmer Writes: farming by dates is seldom a good thing

Sep 25, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

Is there anything nicer than an Indian Summer in September? Lovely sunny mornings with a chill in the air, the dewy grass covered in the ballooning silk of the money spiders anxious to disperse on the rising breeze. Some of the beech trees have already turned, and a tree which you’ve never really noticed before may catch your eye as a thing of great, if transient, beauty. The fields are really dry now, with the cattle rising dust as they scramble for the troughs full of their morning muesli.
Farmer Writes: spring barley set to be our harvest saviour

Sep 11, 2024 | farmersjournal.ie | Gerald Potterton

The first two days combining the spring barley at the end of August were blissful. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing and moistures fell to under 16%. The average yield was good at 3.1t/ac with large swathes of precious golden straw. Good old spring barley, I thought to myself from the combine seat, it’s an unlikely saviour but it will be the crop of the harvest.