Brian Ovington and Eoin
Sweetman
Low levels of winter sowing and the effects of waterlogging were among the talking points at the Teagasc conference.
Kildare tillage farmer Brian Ovington (right) managed to get 80% of his crop area sown last autumn.
“I have a few bald patches, but overall it’s not too bad. I’m happy I went ahead and sowed. Crops seem to have recovered a fair bit in recent weeks.”
The Athy farmer is cautiously hopeful for 2020.
“Hopefully prices will be a bit stronger next harvest than in 2019.”
He forward sold a portion of his 2019 crop at €180/t, which turned out to be a good decision. He will look again at selling forward his 2020 crop.
Eoin Sweetman (left) from Balbriggan, Co Dublin, works on placement with Teagasc advisory dealing with field crops and horticulture. He is also completing a postgraduate in knowledge transfer.
“Field crops would include carrots, parnips, brassicas, onions, leeks and more. Growers had a tough 2018 because of drought. 2019 was an improvement, although it had its challenges too. The wet weather in the autumn resulted in crop losses.
“It’s a high value sector, but the number of growers is small. Prices fluctuate a lot – the same as for other crops – but they don’t seem to be too bad at present.”
Mark Browne and John Murphy
Mark Browne and John Murphy travelled from Co Wexford for the latest updates from the conference.
Browne (left), the IFA national grain chair, was interested in the discussion about cover crops.
“It’s an area where tillage farmers can help the environment. But they will need help to grow these crops, they will need to be properly paid.
“Farmers’ cropping choices and plans have been reduced because there was so little sowing last autumn,” the Enniscorthy man said.
“The concession on the three-crop rule will be a help, but seed for some crops will be scarce. A lot of spring barley will be sown – that will bring its own growing risks, for example a tight harvest time frame.”
John Murphy (right), from Monageer, told the Irish Farmers Journal that he has no crops in the ground: “Normally I’d have two thirds of them sown at this stage.”
He grows winter and spring wheat and barley, as well as beans and fodder beet. He expects beans seed to be very scarce and does not have any yet. “Spring wheat seed will be scarce as well.”
The two men are hopeful that grain markets will remain steady. Murphy normally forward sells some malting barley and expects to do so again in 2020.
“I want to encourage compounders and livestock farmers to use the maximum Irish grain given its high quality and traceability,” Browne said.
Student view/ch>
Students attending the conference got a taste of what issues they will face when they start working in the sector.
Cian Haddock (left) and Conall Moore (right) were among a number of Waterford IT agricultural students in Kilkenny.
“There are a lot of changes coming for tillage farmers,” said Haddock, who is from Limerick.
“They will have to work under stricter rules aimed at protecting the environment. There will be more use of cover crops, more direct drilling.”
Significant numbers of crop sprays are being withdrawn as they lose approval, said Moore.
“To cope with that farmers will have to make more use of rotations,” the Galway man predicted. He expects that tillage farmers will be paying a lot of attention to climate change-related issues in future.
WIT students Cian Haddock (left) and Conall Moore.
The Teagasc conference is always well attended by personnel from the trade. Willie Boland from Liffey Mills, Roscrea, and Barry Larkin from Croplink in Birr were exchanging news.
“Winter crops in our area are not too bad,” said Boland. “They’re better than anticipated but then they’re generally on free-draining soils. Farmers here got 90% of their planned winter barley sown.”
Bean seed will be scarce, he said.
Willie Boland, Liffey Mills Roscrea (left) and Barry Larkin from Croplink.
“There’s very little available. But supplies of spring barley seed in our region will be OK. There may be problems in the north-east, where there was less sown in the autumn and what was sown didn’t survive.”
“There’s a huge backlog of spraying to be done on winter crops,” Larkin told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“Growers are running out of options for weed control. Crops in general are clean enough and that’s a help. But crops are a month behind and will come on – and then weeds will come on too.”He warned that generic pesticides are being lost to the sector, “year in year out.”
“Going forward, that will mean higher input costs,” he warned, adding that generics are being forced off the market because of stricter rules.
Read more
Tillage has important role to play in carbon sequestration – Teagasc conference
Getting to grips with sustainability in tillage farming
Spring seed demand growing with 184,000ha to plant
Brian Ovington and Eoin
Sweetman
Low levels of winter sowing and the effects of waterlogging were among the talking points at the Teagasc conference.
Kildare tillage farmer Brian Ovington (right) managed to get 80% of his crop area sown last autumn.
“I have a few bald patches, but overall it’s not too bad. I’m happy I went ahead and sowed. Crops seem to have recovered a fair bit in recent weeks.”
The Athy farmer is cautiously hopeful for 2020.
“Hopefully prices will be a bit stronger next harvest than in 2019.”
He forward sold a portion of his 2019 crop at €180/t, which turned out to be a good decision. He will look again at selling forward his 2020 crop.
Eoin Sweetman (left) from Balbriggan, Co Dublin, works on placement with Teagasc advisory dealing with field crops and horticulture. He is also completing a postgraduate in knowledge transfer.
“Field crops would include carrots, parnips, brassicas, onions, leeks and more. Growers had a tough 2018 because of drought. 2019 was an improvement, although it had its challenges too. The wet weather in the autumn resulted in crop losses.
“It’s a high value sector, but the number of growers is small. Prices fluctuate a lot – the same as for other crops – but they don’t seem to be too bad at present.”
Mark Browne and John Murphy
Mark Browne and John Murphy travelled from Co Wexford for the latest updates from the conference.
Browne (left), the IFA national grain chair, was interested in the discussion about cover crops.
“It’s an area where tillage farmers can help the environment. But they will need help to grow these crops, they will need to be properly paid.
“Farmers’ cropping choices and plans have been reduced because there was so little sowing last autumn,” the Enniscorthy man said.
“The concession on the three-crop rule will be a help, but seed for some crops will be scarce. A lot of spring barley will be sown – that will bring its own growing risks, for example a tight harvest time frame.”
John Murphy (right), from Monageer, told the Irish Farmers Journal that he has no crops in the ground: “Normally I’d have two thirds of them sown at this stage.”
He grows winter and spring wheat and barley, as well as beans and fodder beet. He expects beans seed to be very scarce and does not have any yet. “Spring wheat seed will be scarce as well.”
The two men are hopeful that grain markets will remain steady. Murphy normally forward sells some malting barley and expects to do so again in 2020.
“I want to encourage compounders and livestock farmers to use the maximum Irish grain given its high quality and traceability,” Browne said.
Student view/ch>
Students attending the conference got a taste of what issues they will face when they start working in the sector.
Cian Haddock (left) and Conall Moore (right) were among a number of Waterford IT agricultural students in Kilkenny.
“There are a lot of changes coming for tillage farmers,” said Haddock, who is from Limerick.
“They will have to work under stricter rules aimed at protecting the environment. There will be more use of cover crops, more direct drilling.”
Significant numbers of crop sprays are being withdrawn as they lose approval, said Moore.
“To cope with that farmers will have to make more use of rotations,” the Galway man predicted. He expects that tillage farmers will be paying a lot of attention to climate change-related issues in future.
WIT students Cian Haddock (left) and Conall Moore.
The Teagasc conference is always well attended by personnel from the trade. Willie Boland from Liffey Mills, Roscrea, and Barry Larkin from Croplink in Birr were exchanging news.
“Winter crops in our area are not too bad,” said Boland. “They’re better than anticipated but then they’re generally on free-draining soils. Farmers here got 90% of their planned winter barley sown.”
Bean seed will be scarce, he said.
Willie Boland, Liffey Mills Roscrea (left) and Barry Larkin from Croplink.
“There’s very little available. But supplies of spring barley seed in our region will be OK. There may be problems in the north-east, where there was less sown in the autumn and what was sown didn’t survive.”
“There’s a huge backlog of spraying to be done on winter crops,” Larkin told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“Growers are running out of options for weed control. Crops in general are clean enough and that’s a help. But crops are a month behind and will come on – and then weeds will come on too.”He warned that generic pesticides are being lost to the sector, “year in year out.”
“Going forward, that will mean higher input costs,” he warned, adding that generics are being forced off the market because of stricter rules.
Read more
Tillage has important role to play in carbon sequestration – Teagasc conference
Getting to grips with sustainability in tillage farming
Spring seed demand growing with 184,000ha to plant
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