The future of farming - If our farmers stand alone they will lose

The 2019 National Ploughing Championships end tomorrow evening. Ireland’s most popular outdoor event, and one of Europe's biggest, it was attended by almost a quarter of a million people last year. It is more than unlikely, hopefully, that the figure fell as dramatically as farmer confidence collapsed in the last year.

This year’s Irish Examiner/ICMSA poll, the sixth, found only 32% of farmers imagined a positive future. That ratio has more than halved in 12 months.