Coming up to his 100th anniversary on Dec 6th, I'll post a Con Houlihan column a day. With thanks to @IrishNewspapers who host these. 1) Reflections on the loss of his friend Luke Kelly. 'Luke Kelly - his life a ballad of a simple man' Evening Press (January 31, 1984)

Of course it's vodka

Is that Patti Scialfa is the Le Freak video?

Huge Congratulations David!! 🥛🌱 David Scallan – Ballymurn, Co. Wexford Fourth-generation dairy farmer and our very first Nuffield Ireland FBD Insurance Scholar for 2026. 🔎 Study topic: How agriculture can attract and retain young people in farming careers.

Suffering of our brothers in Sudan continues amidst shameful silence of the whole world

David Wall says that "curiousity is our game" highlighting the importance of state-of-the-art laboratories to researchers being at the cutting edge of agri-science.

Dr Karen Daly, head of Environment, Soils and Land Use in @teagasc, highlights the tools and actions that minimise nutrient loss to water from farmland.

They hypocrisy of many of the BBC’s political and newspaper accusers

The biggest of many ironies regarding the @BBC resignations is that you don't have to twist the narrative to infer that Donald Trump incited the mob that invaded the Capitol on 6 January. He absolutely did.

Nitrates limits can be roughly equated to speed limits- they are essentially stocking limits, as they are about stocking rate intensity. So I go there in the long read, which also succumbs to the temptation to bring Friday Night Lights into the narrative https://t.co/1I1YYEPyXF

The Capital Acquisitions Tax bill for the average Waterford farm could exceed €400,000 where agricultural relief is not achieved, Eoghan Drea says, but forward.planning is essential.

He advises farmers to grasp the nettle when it comes to choosing a successor. "Don't leave it to the next generation, make the hard decision yourselves as parents" he says.

Eoghan Drea outlines the extent of the demographic challenge facing Irish farming. @ifac_ireland has done a lot of analysis among their 18,000 farmer clients Waterford has the largest average farm size in the country. The 114 acre average holding is worth €1.8m

Farmers have been paying down debt more quickly than they have been taking on new debt, Chris Nolan of AIB tells Waterford farmers

A massive crowd in Dungarvan for the @AIBIreland seminar as John O'Donnell of @tirlan_ follows @dawnmeatsgroup Paul Nolan to the podium. Quite a few faces in the crowd were also in @CorkMarts Corrin for the @IFAmedia Nitrates meeting on Monday

Instead of a single national appropriate assessmwnt, we will have 46 regional ones for each river catchment, Heydon adds. "We need a commonssnse approach, and we need to be given time to do that"

Kevin Twomey highlights the dangers farmers feel the Habitats Directive poses for them, particularly in relation to appropriate assessment. Martin Heydon repies that the Commssion made it clear Brussels is linking it to a derogation renewal.

Mark Connors from Waterford asks Martin Heydon if he accepts that farming is being blamed for pollution it is not responsible for, if he will work to change that, and if he will highlight this misattributation in Brussels.

Martin Heydon is being told that Ireland has a unique climate, and a unique capacity to.grow grass all year round. "We can grow grass like no-one else, but we have to feed thst growing grass with nutrients, nitrogen in particular" says Limerick farmer David Thompson.

@IFAmedia tillage chair Kieran McEvoy says that "the loss of the derogation would mean the end of tillage farming in Ireland" due to competition for land. "No is not an option this time" he says