Countrywide Full Episode 11/07/26
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Time to join Philip Boucher-Hayes and the Countrywide team who have been known to whistle while they work.
How I wish that was me, but it is not. That is Robert Harvey, former All-Ireland whistling champion with an air called Madam Bonaparte. Good morning and fair play to you. Good morning. Thank you very much for having me. And not only All-Ireland, former All-Ireland whistling champion, author of a beautiful, really impressive book, Fadil, The Whistling Tradition in Ireland, 1800 to 2021. If you were to see somebody going around the place whistling while they work now, you'd say they were a bit of an attention seeker perhaps, Robert. But people used routinely whistle while they work and they had special airs for different jobs.
Absolutely, yeah, it was such an important and integral part of normal life, I suppose. You can pull back a little bit from the mic there. Yeah, it was such an important part of everyday life. People used to whistle while they were working around the farm. There were specific plough tunes, there were whistling tunes for milking and tunes that shepherds would whistle out in the fields. It was just an important part of everyday life.
And a belief that if you whistled while you milked, it made the milk sweeter.
Absolutely, yeah. Or the cows might yield more milk as well. So maybe listeners listening in this morning might like to give that a go.
I tell you, if that worked, the creameries would already have figured that one out. I can absolutely guarantee you that. And there is an air, an air absolutely perfect for, and I don't mean to sound hokey, but there's an awful lot of people who are actually milking while they're listening to this programme. There is an air, which would have been perfect, but you refused to whistle it.
Yeah, there's a little bit of a superstition around that era, all right.
Going back to the schools collection, there's a story that a priest... This is the Duke of Schools collection, started in 1937, which we keep on coming back to on this programme.
Go on. Yeah, so allegedly there was a priest walking the roads, he was going the roads and trying to, or on his way to administer last rites to a parishioner and... He heard a fairy whistling this melody and got distracted and didn't make it in time to administer last rites. So there's a superstition or a belief that it's kind of bad luck to whistle the tune.
Well, I'll tell you what the consequences of you whistling Madame Bonaparte was. We have a text already, 51551. That amazing whistle had my two horses on high alert and the one that was up the field came in fast.
Terrific!
Fair play to you. OK, the reason that Robert is here and he has brought some colleagues with him as well is that we are piggybacking on the back of Cultus Culturier and 75th anniversary. And we have an amazing bit of music for you and some more chat a little bit later on in the programme. But for the moment, Robert, thank you very much. We are going to spend quite a bit of time this morning in milking parlours. where they have been incredibly hot in the course of the last week. And we're going to be talking about how we adapt, how farmers adapt to climate shifts, because the last week has presented an entirely different set of challenges to the normal ones that farmers have to deal with. Dairy farmers in particular, as they try to look after animals that were not designed for these temperatures.
Vet Ryan Duffy works with Animal Health Ireland. He is a specialist in heat stress in dairy cows.
The Irish dairy cow is susceptible to heat stress for two main reasons. Reason number one is to do with their actual digestive system. So they have four stomachs. The largest one, the rumen, that's actually a microbial fermentation vat. So that is constantly producing heat. A lot of gas, but a lot of heat. So think beer brewery. Beer brewery, exactly like a beer brewery. So I would equate it to a dairy cow having a water bottle underneath her skin at all times. During cold weather, it's great. During hot weather, it's a challenge.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:37
2
What is the history and cultural importance of whistling and Coláiste branch music in Ireland?
5:37–22:57
3
How does heat stress affect dairy cows’ digestion, water needs and milk production?
22:57–32:20
4
At what temperatures do cows start to show clinical signs of heat stress and reduced intake?
32:20–47:13