2001 ‘most significant farming year’

THE outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001 makes that year the most memorable and significant in farming here over the past three decades, according to readers of the Irish Farmers Monthly.

As part of its 30th anniversary celebrations, readers were invited to vote for the most memorable farming years since the magazine was first published in 1975.

Top of the list was 2001 because of the foot and mouth outbreak, followed by 2003 and the reform of Common Agricultural Policy and 1992 with the McSharry CAP reforms.