Ella McSweeney's posts

A tree packed full of gregarious starlings in the village of Tarbert, Co. Kerry. (image by the Irish artist Vincent Sheridan - http://www.print.ie/detail.php?category_id=3&id=192)

Irish farmers protesting in Portlaoise talk to Ella about the problems they are experiencing at the moment. For Farming Today @bbcradio4

Tom is a young full time dairy farmer in East Cork. He talks to Ella (for BBC Radio 4's Farming Today show) and tells her why the Irish Farmers Association should not be protesting on the streets of Dublin today.

Dr Seán Mac an tSaoir tells Ella about the Armagh Bramley apple

Alo Mohan is a chicken farmer in Cavan. He tells Ella why he fears for the future of Irish poultry sector. (For RTE Radio 1's Countrywide programme - www.rte.ie/radio1/countrywide)

Pig paternity tests are being used to fight meat mislabelling in Ireland. After three years of work the Irish Farmers Association has set up a pig DNA database which will be used to spot check pork and bacon.

Ella McSweeney travels to Tipperary to meet pig farmer Tim Cullinan who spearheaded the project.

It's been a dreadful year for many apple varieties. The cold spring and wet summer has resulted in a decimated eating crop across most of the country.

There are 40 commercial apple growers in Ireland - it’s a sector with a retail value of Euro 17 million - and their crop is set to be down by 50% on 2011.

So what is going on? Ella McSweeney travelled to Tipperary to visit Cornelius Traas’ commercial apple farm just outside of Cahir to see how his eating crop has faired and to find out why this year has been such an awful one for apples...

Cornelius Traas, a commercial apple farmer from Tipperary (http://www.theapplefarm.com), says Ireland's apple crop will be severely reduced this season.