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Upland Voices Podcast

Upland Farming - ACRES Donegal in conversation with Sean Cadden, Catherine Keena and Martin Gavin

Season 1, Ep. 1
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In this episode we speak to Sean Cadden, Catherine Keena and Martin Gavin who share with us the history of upland farming in Ireland.


Sean Cadden worked as a Teagasc Agricultural Advisor in West Mayo from 1964 for almost 40 years. He recently published a book entitled ‘Seventy Years in the Wild West – The Rise and Fall of Ireland’s Largest Sheep Farm’. His story of the history of hill farming provides a valuable insight which will add to the current conversation on our uplands. Catherine Keena is the Countryside Management Specialist at Teagasc with particular focus on biodiversity on our farms and Martin Gavin is a fifth generation hill farmer. Martin has been involved in the Freshwater Pearl Mussel EIP which as he says himself "opened his eyes to the plight of these fascinating creatures". Martin is an ACRES farmers.


ACRES is the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme, the latest agri scheme from the Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and aims to deliver significant long-term environmental improvement through two approaches – ACRES Co-operation and ACRES General.

Visit our website https://www.acresdonegal.ie



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  • 2. Upland Farming - ACRES Donegal

    39:17||Season 1, Ep. 2
    Lesley Taylor is a sheep farmer in Cloghan, Co Donegal. She grew up on the family farm but later moved to London for work. On her return some 20 years ago, Lesley embarked on her own enterprise of hill farming close to her native Finn Valley. Lesley describes the type of animals she keeps and why they are most suited to her farm and her lifestyle.She discusses the challenges of start-up farming and describes how she navigated her way through the ups and downs, learning valuable lessons along the way. She shares with us the changes in nature she has seen over the years and has come up with some novel ideas to keep her environmental impact down, which in turn keeps her farming costs down. Farming community is very strong in Donegal and Lesley tells us that she has had the support of many of her neighbouring farmers over the years. Lesley’s story is inspiring to all farmers but most especially to female farmers and new entrants.