Rural Eye
Agriculture land use in Ireland has always been influenced by the level of income that can be generated from different farm enterprises.
Up to the sixties, flax growing for the linen industry was quite lucrative for Irish farmers, especially in West Cork where the flax crop was transported by West Cork Railway to its destination in Northern Ireland. However in the sixties, flax growing became an un-viable farm enterprise. This was due to emerging technology in textile development and the closure of railway infrastructures, including West Cork Railways, which was the main means of transporting flax to its Northern Ireland destination.
This triggered a substantial change in land use, as the land used for flax growing now had to be utilised for some other farm enterprise. Fortunately, beet growing was then becoming well established as a lucrative farm crop and much of the land that had been used to grow flax was now being switched to grow sugar beet instead. This situation lasted until 2006 when the sugar industry and beet growing for sugar production ceased. Again, this precipitated further land use change, with the land that was used for sugar beet growing being diverted to increased cereal growing and also to suckler and cattle rearing.
To read the rest of this article visit:
The West Cork Times website.
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