A new series showcasing Irish farmers working with nature is set to air on our television screens next week.

‘Caomhnóirí na Talún’ from IWR Media will be shown on TG4 at 8.30pm on Wednesday 4 September.

The show follows five farmers, from an extensive suckler farm on Inis Mór island to the dairy heartland of east Cork, who create and conserve habitats on their farms, pioneer new ideas and try to find a way to protect wildlife and their living.

The series creators said Irish farmland will need to change if biodiversity is to improve.

“As more and more land was brought into production, there was less and less space for wildlife.

“Across the country, there’s a growing number of farmers who are forging that path and farming with nature.”

The farmers

The five farmers that the show will look at are Pádraic Ó Flaithearta, a small dry stock suckler farmer on Inis Mór; John Arnold and his wife Mary who run a dairy farm in east Cork; full-time teacher and part-time suckler farmer from Clare Eoin Collins; journalist and organic farmer from Limerick Hannah Quinn-Mulligan; and Norman Dunne, an intensive tillage farmer who has switched to a regenerative approach.

These farmers have created habitats such as ponds, nettle patches or bee scrapes on their farms while letting their hedgerows grow, blossom and fruit.

The series was written and directed by award-winning filmmaker and radio producer Mary Brophy.

The creators added that viewers will experience the farmers “trying the find a balance between nature and the realities of making a living from farming”.