Great video George, due to past and current agricultural practices we turned our beautiful countryside into a green desert. I gave up shooting a good few years ago as where i live every single ditch that could be removed was removed and the decline in game was unbelievable, aong with it many other forms of wildlife such as songbirds etc. i can remember a shooting man saying when we joined the EEC in the 70s and when the first JCB diggers entered the fields that it was all over even back then!!. A great shooting tradition in this country with once an abudance of game sadly has had it day and now will be consigned to history and memory.

Great talk George!! Thanks for your insight!!

Great video well done we cant let the sport die

Thanks George, hugely informative video although sad to see the decline in such stark relief. I often complain about overregulation in business, but for sure we need it to save us from ourselves. Left to our own devices, man is a most destructive force.

very important video 👍I’ve seen it in west Kerry with the proliferation of dairy farms and the loss of woodcock habitat and in Kildare with the clearing of ditches and rushy fields

There needs to be more exposure for crises like this George, well done. I fished at a local spot recently. Last year, I had to climb 3 stiles over ditches to access, but now I was able to walk directly alongside a newly planted field. All ditches had been removed, and planting was as close to the river as possible. This particular farm is leased to a big contractor, and I think you'll find this is what's happening with a lot of leased land - bottom line is all that matters.

Sad state of affairs there, such a shame but as you say money, in this case milk money. It’s not progress in my mind more short term greed, with no return. Feel for you George in this, upsetting and your way of life turned over. Thanks for posting, it can’t have been easy, however you have got the story out in a very informative way. Good luck going forward, and hopefully things will be better for the Emerald Isle. 👏👏👏

Good man George for highlighting this issue we spoke about something similar happening to our rivers at a recent show .Removing or ditches also leads to runoff getting into or rivers quickly I think we need a policy change more than anything but unfortunately we keep voting the same crowd in so probably only ourselves to blame .On a positive note you have a great channel that I look forward to viewing. Go raibh maith agat.

Hi George, I think you have captured the mood of most shooting men and women all over Ireland. IIf this continues wild game bird shooting will be a thing of the past. Have been following you since the springerspanielfull days and enjoy the videos. Keep on telling it like it is.

Well done on the content of the video, very accurate, and something we have all seen over the past 2 or 3 decades. What is the solution?

Very good analysis George the guts have been ripped out of the country side for export. we are not consuming the amount of milk as a nation we are sending it to the glanbia plants turning it to powder and exporting it to the middle east.meanwhile our government are encouraging this and providing a grant to for capital gain export charges.

again George great (but sad) and informative video, the Irish are just sitting on their arses doing nothing about the decline, not just in hunting, but in our culture and identity and our homeland as a whole and all at the hands of a few who've sold their country and people out.

So sad and frustrating to see this all over the country. Same happened when the sugar factories closed down and the beet fields disappeared overnight. It was such a good rotation crop, benefitting both the land and wildlife

Hi, I just trained my Springer to hunt, I've started to think more of trying to photograph birds as I've

The same thing happened here in Shropshire in the 1960s when i was a kid.

Terrible!!!! what's happing great video to explain in simple terms whats happing unfortunately it's only getting worse and worse and in a few years from now everywhere will be the same 😤

This hit hard. Sad to see rural traditions just die for pure greed

Totally agree George Countryside is destroyed,I gave up shooting my self because off this,Its very sad for wild life thanks for highlighting this

I feel sorry for you George , you are a genuine hunting and gun dog man. The same thing is happening here in the southeast as well. I have phoned several people in Tegasc about the habitat loss on Irish dairy farms and i have only got lies and denial as responses. A dairy advisor told me there that Irish dairy farms contain 27 percent biodiversity on their farms. I was told that Irish farms are the most carbon neutral in the world. All the politicians are well versed to argue against culling the national herd. The Agri and food sector holds a lot of power in policies in here in Ireland. Politicians are paid off what to say.

Same here with us. Where we live if they didn't intensively rear pheasant and duck, which brings its own problems, they'd have nothing to shoot! The lands dying allright.