Teagasc is to roll its tillage conferences, spring seminars and fields walks into a series of online activities to run from mid-January to mid-February.

Ongoing COVID-19 restrictions mean that these events cannot take place as normal.

There will be seven different online events over the coming weeks, starting with the first of the two advisory webinars on Tuesday 19 January.

This will discuss topics such as spring varieties, straw incorporation for carbon accumulation and GLAS and biodiversity.

Later that week, the second advisory webinar takes place on Thursday 21 January.

This event will concentrate on Brexit, organic manures and beans.

Both seminars take place from 11.30am to 1pm. Online registration is essential in advance.

Tillage conference online events

Then, on Wednesday 3 February, the first of two online sessions to replace the annual National Tillage Conference takes place.

This morning session, commencing at 9.30am, will outline current research at Teagasc.

There will be presentations on oat agronomy, BYDV diagnostics, generating high-value breeding material, the potential of rye and the agronomy of beans.

The second of these two conference webinars will take place on Wednesday 17 February, again commencing at 9.30am.

This session will deal with issues such as integrated pest management, mitigating grassweed problems, septoria control and results from the Teagasc systems trial.

Virtual crop walks

Between these two dates there will be two virtual winter crops walks on Tuesday 9 and Thursday 11 February.

These will provide growers with the opportunity to see and discuss the main husbandry issues that are likely this spring, with opportunity for discussion with advisers.

The final event in over a month of focused online tillage content will replace the annual malting barley conference.

This will take place on 23 February, but there are no times available for this yet.

It is essential to register for each event in advance and take care that you note the correct starting time, as different events have different start times.