Donald Scully gazed at his herd of 208 cows munching grass and clover in a verdant field, as a light breeze ruffles the stillness.
“There is an enjoyment for me to come out and look, and see how healthy and happy these cows are,” said Scully, 47, a third-generation dairy farmer. “Every single cow has her own personality, they’re all individuals.”
The pastoral scene in Ballyheyland, a landscape of rolling hills in County Laois, is replicated across rural Ireland.
Ireland has 7.3 million cattle, substantially outnumbering humans, and a long history with the animal stretching into myth, including the Cattle Raid of Cooley, an epic tale considered the Irish Iliad.
Agriculture dominated the economy well into the 20th century and molded a vision of Ireland that still enchants visitors.
However, cows now symbolize something else: a climate crisis quandary.
Instead of cutting emissions, Ireland has continued increasing them and the biggest contributor is agriculture. Ireland’s 135,000 farms produce 37.5 percent of national emissions, the highest proportion in the EU, and most of that comes from methane associated with belching by ruminant animals.
Under a new government plan, agriculture must reduce emissions by 25 percent by 2030. Other sectors face even higher targets — transport must reduce emissions by 50 percent, commercial and public buildings by 40 percent — but the loudest protests have come from farmers.
Cutting emissions by one-quarter would drive many farms into bankruptcy and could force the culling of thousands of cows, they say.
“The mood is hugely frustrated,” said Pat McCormack, head of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association. “It’s very hard to quantify, but there will be increased costs and reduced output.”
Farmers and their allies have accused the coalition government, which includes the Green party, of scapegoating rural Ireland and leaving farmers little option but to cull herds. So far there have been no Dutch-style protests.
The government had been encouraging dairy farmers to expand to exploit the end of EU milk quotas. Farmers invested in new equipment and the dairy herd grew by almost a half in the past decade. Irish butter, cheese and other produce — 90 percent is exported — filled supermarket shelves around the world.
“All the talk was of what dairy could deliver for the economy and society, and we did that in spades. Now it’s the bad boy,” McCormack said.
In Ballyheyland, Scully, who owns 60 hectares of land and rents another 60 hectares in the shadow of the Cullenagh mountain, not only multiplied his herd fivefold, he made it pedigree Holstein Friesian. His cows roam the fields and subsist mainly on grass, a key selling point that distinguishes Irish produce from other nations that house cows in concrete sheds.
The work is 24 hours per day, seven days a week, Scully said.
“You have to love it otherwise you wouldn’t do it,” he said.
He hopes his teenage son will become the fourth generation Scully to raise cows, but says climate targets could imperil the farm’s future.
“It’s all happening so quickly, and they’re looking for results so fast. Sometimes you would be better moving slow and doing it right,” he said.
A way of life is at stake, Scully said.
“You don’t miss anything until it’s gone,” he added.
Farmers hope that proposed changes in calculating methane emissions, greater efficiencies, new technologies and other measures could avert the need to reduce herds.
John Sweeney, a climate expert at Maynooth University, is skeptical.
“Various tried and untried methods have been advanced to suggest compliance with the 25 percent emissions ceiling. They were insufficient,” Sweeney said. “Only a reduction in numbers can achieve the targets in the short term.”
Sweeney estimates Ireland would need to reduce its number of cattle by 1 million by 2030.
“The use of emotive words like ‘cull’ is unhelpful and inflames a process which can be managed in a more gradual manner,” he said.
Farmers were getting off lightly compared with other sectors, Sweeney said.
“Agriculture has received a very generous emission ceiling, largely due to the powerful lobby groups it possesses,” he said.
The rest of society faces a 60 percent reduction in emissions to soak up the slack from agriculture.
It remains unclear how — or whether — Ireland would achieve these cuts. It has a record of setting bold and supposedly binding targets, followed by inaction.
John Connell, a farmer and author from County Longford, said that cannot happen again.
He wrote a No. 1 bestseller in 2018 called The Cow Book, a chronicle of a calving season and a meditation on rural Ireland. His next books will be about the environment.
“Climate is the issue of our time. We all need to pull together now to make sure there is a world for our children and grandchildren to inherit,” Connell said.
Everyone needs to adapt, Connell said.
“It’s not going to be easy, but we have to think about the global home that we live in. We have to find a way to be gentler with the land,” he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the