Meet our most recent Ambassador – Thomas Fouhy
We would like to introduce our most recent Farming For Nature Ambassador, tillage farmer, Thomas Fouhy from County Cork. Thomas is our January Ambassador and we are delighted to include him in our network of Farming For Nature Ambassadors. These individuals have been chosen in acknowledgement of their long-standing commitment and contribution to farming for nature on their land and in their community.
Thomas is an organic, min-till, stockless, arable farmer with 84 acres in north Co. Cork. Apart from the many trees and hedgerows on his land, he proactively farms all available ground. Nature takes advantage of how well he manages the delicate balance of building and maintaining soil health. Thomas crops on a 10-year flexible rotation that includes speciality crops like grain-lupins, linseed, lentils, sunflowers, as well as the standard grain crops. He has 10 acres of just flowers! He demonstrates the breadth of largely unexplored crops we can produce in Ireland and highlights our potential to produce our own protein crops, reducing our reliance on imported soy. The soil is never bare for long, crops are under-sown with red clover, and diverse winter cover-crop mixes fill the gaps between the cash crops. Many of the cash-crops and the cover-crops are flowering, providing great seasonal diversity for pollinators. Thomas’s farming is truly productive, profitable, and works in sync with nature – a real symbiosis. He is a shining example of how innovative and cutting edge organic arable farming can be. Thomas tells a story of how a hedgehog followed by her prickle of hoglets nonchalantly rambled past him on his farm lane one day – then he knew he must be doing something right!
Thomas will be joining us for a free online Q&A on the 22nd February as part of our weekly Ask the Farmer Q&A session. To find out more about his farming practice, please register below.
For more information on all our Ambassadors go here
