The latest innovation from the Farmers Journal is soon to hit the newstands: Irish Country Magazine, a standalone quarterly. The first issue’s run is 30,000, printed locally and with a cover price of €2.99. Its 100 glossy pages should draw consumer advertisers. Its editor is Mairead Lavery, who also edits the Irish Country Living weekly supplement in the Journal. To test the concept, the Farmers Journal published five magazines over the last 12 months or so and the reaction from readers was more than positive.

Lavery and David Leydon, Farmers Journal circulation sales and marketing manager, went to Sweden to research the project where an agricultural publishing company was producing a similar style magazine. As for the Farmers Journal itself, the paper, like Irish farming generally, has been on a solid sales and readership growth curve for the past six years. The latest ABCs show weekly circulation up to 72,046, while readership grew by 4,000 to 231,000. Readership for Irish Country Living grew handsomely, from 146,000 to 179,000, with the increase almost evenly split between men and women.

Leydon says that the circulation is at one of the highest points ever in the publication's history. Highest sales ever were achieved during the week of the annual ploughing championships, with a total of 85,000 copies. The Farmers Journal stable also includes The Irish Field, the weekly horse racing paper the trust bought from The Irish Times a decade ago; it now sells an average 12,000 copies per issue. Few other publications in these islands can claim growth like this in cover sales and readership – quite the reverse.

AGRI AWARE David Leydon, circulation sales and marketing manager and John Grogan, advertising director, Irish Farmers Journal. Grogan has a masters degree in agricultural science from UCD and worked with the Department of Agriculture.

The fact is farming and agri-business are among the few expanding areas of the economy, along with IT and exports. Fewer people may be working in farming these days, but around 90 per cent of much of the food produced here is exported. The abolition of milk quotas in three years time will be a huge boost to dairy farmers. One project in which the Journal is involved in is the conversion of a Kilkenny farm from tillage to dairying.

Comparatively good times in farming today help compensate for the many leaner years. The Farmers Journal was founded in 1948 by Macra na Feirme, the young farmers’ organisation. But accumulated debts allowed Hugh McLaughlin’s print company take it over. But the irrepressible McLaughlin was unable to make it work and sold it on to a progressive Co Meath farmer called John Mooney. Mooney knew the magic formula to appeal to the agricultural community and – crucially – had ready access to funds.

When Mooney died, he bequeathed the paper to the Agricultural Trust, which was set up in the 1960s and which owns the publication to this day. All profits made by the paper are redirected back to farming through the trust. Paddy O'Keeffe became the editor and he still contributes today. Michael Dillon came on board to manage the advertising side, but soon switched to journalism. The current editor, Matt Dempsey, took over in 1988.

Leydon, who does a spot of farming himself, says agriculture has become a technical and highly-regulated business. To a large extent, the present day newspaper is data driven. It is jam-packed with technical information and advice on compliance with EU-driven regulations, including the single farm payment scheme. The weekly prices for cattle are essential reading for most farmers, their equivalent of stocks and shares listings.

The recession has driven the numbers of young people considering farming as a career to new heights, all good for the future development of the paper. “It’s fair to say we’re like the Financial Times for farmers,” Leydon says. “All our production is done in-house and the Farmers Journal and Irish Country Living are printed by The Irish Times at Citywest.

Many of the paper’s writers are agri specialists who developed careers in journalism. The people producing the paper are described as having a passion for both farming and the publication they roll out each week. Circulation figures cover the whole island of Ireland; it has its own editorial team north of the border, with ten separate pages each week.

An array of notable names write for the Journal itself, while Irish Country Living has positioned itself more towards farming families. It contributors include TV chef Neven Maguire. He recently published two books in association with the trust which have sold well. Gardening expert Gerry Daly is another contributor. The supplement includes a section on country and western music and coverage devoted to the Irish horse.

Offaly native John Grogan looks after advertising. He says the main paper attracts all sorts of ads, including animal health. Its classifieds section is undiminished by the recession and usually boasts over 30 pages a week. Much of the advertising is placed directly and the paper provides a full production service for anyone who requires it.

On the other hand, says Grogan, Irish Country Living generates more consumer advertising, often from agencies targeting clearly-defined, affluent farming families. Who else but farmers would run two or three cars at the same time? Advertisers like Waterford Stanley and the various car marques find the paper an ideal medium for their messages.

Grogan is also secretary of the Agricultural Trust and Paddy O'Keeffe its chairman.

The trust has embraced social networks like Facebook and Twitter. They produce at least one video a week and in another technical advance, the studio in the Irish Farm Centre has an ISDN line, allowing journalists to do broadcast interviews in situ.

About 95 per cent of sales are fully paid, through newsagents and supermarkets. Particularly with farm prices, time is critical, so it's essential for many readers that they can get their weekly Farmers Journal on a Thursday. So the number of subscriptions is low, less than 600, as posted copies may not reach readers until the following Monday.

A digital edition is available from Wednesday afternoons. Limited content is available free but to get all the bells and whistles, people need to pay the €99 charge for a digital subscription, which works out at 76 per cent of the cost of the paper’s normal cover price.

People can also read the Farmers Journal and The Irish Field on both iPhones and android apps. Special apps are produced for events like the ploughing championships and the Balmoral show in Belfast. A range of new apps is currently being developed.

The Farmers Journal is also promoted regularly through radio and TV campaigns; one recent promotion was on UTV for the North’s farming show and, of course, through trade publications like Marketing.ie. The paper is a remarkable story in Irish publishing and advertisers love the fact that it reaches such a clearly-defined community, one that's doing pretty nicely these days. Business analysts are predicting great things for Irish farming as global demand for food soars, especially as the market in China opens up.