Kilkenny farmer contributes to book on practical ways to create a more sustainable farming future

Irish farmers — including one from Kilkenny, Suzanna Crampton — have joined forces for a new book combining scientific research with local knowledge that gives farmers and others practical tips on how to create a more sustainable future, while protecting land and nature.

At a time of great challenge and uncertainty for farm families, The Farming For Nature Handbook is a practical guide to protecting and restoring nature.

With contributions from more than 50 Irish farmers, the book also shares farmers’ experiences of how working with nature can help reduce costs and improve incomes. 

While there is widespread awareness of the environmental damage caused by poor farming practices, this book in contrast attempts to highlight the positive ways farmers can sustain and enhance our natural environment, and benefit from the results. 

It is hoped The Farming For Nature Handbook will become the essential guide to caring profitably for our land.  

The book, which will be launched on November 28, was inspired by regular requests to the non-profit Farming For Nature project from landowners, farmers, smallholders and growers wanting to learn how best to manage their land, big or small, in a way that enhances habitats, protects profits, and safeguards our natural environment and rural communities. 

The Farming For Nature project was set up to support, encourage and inspire farmers who farm, or who wish to farm, in a way that will improve the natural health of our countryside. 

The Farming For Nature Handbook shares tips for a better farming future and shows how to manage land in a way that enhances habitats, increases wildlife and harnesses natural processes while protecting livelihoods, food security and profiles. It is not just targeted at farmers but is for anyone who wants to grow, garden and gather better. 

Suzanne Crampton, who is a sheep farmer and orchard owner at Maidenhall, Bennettsbridge, was one of the contributors. 

She keeps Zwartbles sheep, which is a breed of domestic sheep originating in the Friesland region of the north Netherlands, in her orchard and gives advice to other farmers on keeping animals within an orchard. Some of her advice in the book includes: 

“I’ve found sheep are excellent grazers in an orchard despite sometimes consuming leaves and low hanging fruit. In addition, nutritious sheep manure enriches pasture grasses and herbs beneath trees. Trees also benefit, as do augmented insect lives, all essential to a natural nutrient cycle and soil fertility for all that dwell above and below the soil surface, such as dung beetles.

“To prevent cows or sheep barking trees for medicinal reasons, you must ensure that there are other easily accessible herbal plants with abundant natural tannins and minerals that grow in your orchard. Such plants consist of most varieties of the daisy family, yarrow, crown vetch, birds foot trefoil, dock and sainfoin, to name a few. Plants with significant quantities of condensed tannins help prevent bloat and decrease infestations of worm parasites when grazed. Natural tannins are known to disrupt the life cycle of gut worms.” 

The book was conceived and developed by Brigid Barry, researched and mainly written by conservation ecologist Dr. Emma Hart on behalf of Farming For Nature and co-edited by Dr. Brendan Dunford of the Burrenbeo Trust. It is beautifully illustrated with watercolours and sketches by farmer and artist Clive Bright as well as digital images by scientific illustrator William Helps.  

The book has been described by President of Ireland Michael D Higgins as “a timely and essential contribution to the on-going discourse on how we, as a society, must respond to some of the most pressing challenges of our time”. 

The Farming For Nature Handbook, published by Dingle Publishing, will be launched on November 28th, 2024. RRP €30. It is available to order (and pre-order now) at www.farmingfornature.ie 

The book was supported financially by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Lifes2Good Foundation.  

Commenting, Farming For Nature Manager and co-founder Brigid Barry said: “There is a massive gap in the market for this book - an easy-to-access toolkit to help tackle the biodiversity and climate crises. We hope it gets into every jeep and tractor in the countryside to guide farmers in these tricky times. Many farmers start by making small changes. Then, as they join a like-minded community and begin to experience the value of nature returning to their farms, they don’t look back. Nature unleashes your land's full potential.” 

Farming For Nature co-founder Dr. Brendan Dunford said: “Two thirds of our countryside is owned and managed by farmers, and we view these farmers as potentially a huge resource in addressing the biodiversity crisis that Ireland faces today. This has seen declines in most of our habitats and species – for instance, it’s estimated that we’ve lost 30% of our semi-natural grasslands in only one decade. To mobilise these ‘farmers for nature’ we need better funding but also better guidance, and this handbook will hopefully help inform the journey ahead towards a more sustainable future for our wonderful landscapes and those who farm them.” 

Conservation scientist and co-author Dr. Emma Hart added:  "At a time of profound loss—of clean water, healthy soil, and our native wildlife—the Farming For Nature Handbook is both a message of hope and a call to action. It shows how each of us can take charge of the health and vitality of the landscapes we inhabit, and help shift the dial toward a brighter, more resilient future.”