A “resurgence and return” to winter planting was noted by Tirlán in the latest harvest.

Tirlán’s head of grain John Kealy told the audience at the Irish Farmers Journal stand at the National Ploughing Championships that conditions were very good for planting winter crops in autumn last year.

“2024 was a really challenging year weather-wise, especially the first half of the year, but I think it turned for the second half. So our harvest for 2025 actually starts when the crop is sown in the autumn.

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“What we saw in general was a resurgence in and a return to a lot of winter planting. Winter wheat went in in fabulous condition, winter barley went into the ground in fabulous condition, winter oilseed rape - they all got into the ground in excellent conditions,” he said.

Kealy added that Tirlán’s intake is up 15% to 20%, with winter wheat and barley up more significantly.

“Winter wheat and winter barley are both up over 50%, so that’s mainly driven by a return to those acres getting sown. Yields were also at or above slightly average.

“If I was to make a particular comment: winter wheat, we’d great yields, particularly up in the northeast where the crop never ran out of moisture, so really good yields up there,” he said.

Tillage-dairy synergy

Kealy said a new incentive that would see farmers using rations with native grains as part of the suite of measures available to milk suppliers to access a sustainability payment is being looked at for 2026.

“In truth, the dairy farmer is not going to pay extra for something because it’s Irish, it’s from Tirlán. That’s a competitive market.

“We have a grain inputs business, sitting beside a grain business and that has to stand on its own two feet.

“Personally, I’d be delighted to see if we can come up with a very clever way of helping our milk suppliers buy our Tirlán members’ grain through our feed portfolio and we’ll have a good way of doing that for 2026,” he said.