Crops event to focus on varieties and future of tillage this week

The annual Teagasc Crops Forum will take place this Friday 8 September.

The event will cover everything from new varieties and integrated pest management to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The last part of the event will focus on the future of tillage and hear from members of the Food Vision tillage group.

The Crops Forum will be held in the Killashee Hotel, Naas, Co Kildare, at 2pm, but some of the event will be available to view online. Viewers should note that not all segments will be online.

Sessions

The event will be in three sessions as follows.

Session one focuses on planning for the season ahead, with a presentation from the Department of Agriculture's cereal variety testing division and from Teagasc on integrated pest management.

Session two focuses on climate and building carbon stocks on tillage farms. Gary Lanigan will talk about the marginal abatement cost curve. John Mahon will present on the Signpost programme and tillage farmer Darren Allen will talk about his participation in the programme so far.

Session three is titled 'mapping out a path for the tillage industry for the next five years'. Speakers will include Food Vision tillage group chair Matt Dempsey and representatives from industry stakeholders including the IFA and the Irish Grain Growers Group.

You can register for the event here.

Potato blight workshop

Teagasc will host a potato blight workshop on Tuesday 5 September at 2pm in Teagasc Oak Park, Co Carlow. Attendees will be shown blight trials with different products and there will be a discussion on the current strains of blight.