The tillage sector has now entered its quiet period for most growers this year, but the 2021 season has certainly been a busy one.

Great weather and good crops meant farmers could maximise their time in fields when completing crop husbandry activities, cover crop planting, crop drilling, as well as field and soil maintenance.

As such, we recognise that it is not always possible to have the time to read and digest all of the tillage news in the Irish Farmers Journal newspaper during those busy periods. Therefore, we have come up with an alternative way to get your tillage news for the week.

For the past three months, the tillage team has been recording a weekly tillage podcast to bring you all the latest news and technical information specific to the industry over the previous seven days.

Content

Our weekly podcast begins with a run through the main activities taking place in the fields over the past week, pulling in rainfall and temperature data from Sencrop and Met Éireann weather stations.

We then discuss the main topics relating to tillage in the paper for that week and their relevance to decisions and work practices for the weeks and months ahead. Previous topics have included crop management and aphid pressure in the unseasonably mild autumn weather, grain markets hitting €300/t, marketing strategies, fertiliser prices and 2022 nutrient planning.

Other topics regularly covered on the podcast include climate and sustainability news, as well as updates on the farm renewable energy sector and schemes. Finally, we take a look at the week ahead and ask what jobs need to be done on farms.

The podcast, usually 35 minutes in length, makes for easy listening for the tractor cab or in the farm office.

Where can I listen?

The podcast is published every Thursday morning on the Irish Farmers Journal podcast page.

The podcast is free and can be found on ifj.ie/podcast. The podcast can also be found on iTunes and Spotify.

Upcoming webinars

In addition to the podcast, more online only content can be found on the website. As part of the From the Tramline series, we will be hosting online webinars which will review the last year and look ahead to 2022. The webinars will be free to watch online on the Irish Farmers Journal website. The topics are:

  • 17 November 8pm: Harvest 2021 round-up and crop area prospects.
  • 24 November 8pm: Input costs and returns for 2022.
  • 1 December 8pm: Grain market outlook.