The Tillage Edge

Jim McCarthy, who is farming in Romania, sixty kilometres from the Ukraine border, chats to the Tillage Edge this week about the impacts of the Ukraine war on his family and business. Jim discusses the immediate efforts of his staff who are helping Ukrainian refugees arriving at the border to travel to safety outside Ukraine. He chatted about the effects of changes to grain price and input costs a...

Both winter oilseed rape and winter barley have started to grow and many farmers are either getting back into fields or are anxiously waiting for soils to dry out. On this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Michael Hennessy speaks to Ciaran Collins and Shay Phelan, Teagasc tillage specialists, about the progress of the main winter crops and the most urgent jobs to be completed. Ciaran Collins talked abo...

More farmers are investing in GPS systems but navigating the different systems can be challenging. This is the first in a series of podcasts on the Tillage Edge exploring the area of precision technology on farms. Craig England, a Precision Ag and Machine Control Specialist working for Topcon Positioning Ireland, joined Michael Hennessy to go through the requirements for a tillage farmer getting s...

This week’s Tillage Edge podcast continues the series looking at farmers who are working closely with Teagasc in the Signpost Farms programme and other initiatives. Don Somers, a farmer in Wexford, and his advisor John Pettit, joined Michael Hennessy to discuss Don’s farm practice. Don has costed out various fertiliser practices and has identified that changing to protected urea on winter crops wi...

This week’s Tillage Edge podcast revisits the questions and answers from the Malting Barley Webinar which was held on February 10th. A panel of experts from Teagasc, Boortmalt and Teagasc, as well as farmers, answered questions that were asked by attendee farmers during the webinar. The session covers nitrogen applications for this season, how cover crops can be incorporated into malting barley pr...

This week, the Tillage Edge podcast catches up with the questions and answers from the Crops Webinar on CAP23 which was held on February 3rd. A panel of experts from the Department of Agriculture and Marine, Teagasc and a farmer answer questions that were asked by farmers during the webinar. The session covers areas such as partnerships, young farmers, eligible crops, entitlement values and much m...

This week the Tillage Edge chats to Eoin Lyons, the Teagasc Boortmalt Joint Programme Advisor, who explains why it is critical that tillage farmers get a nutrient management plan completed for 2022. Eoin goes through the process of creating a nutrient management plan and the time involved and he says where a farm is already mapped in the NMP online system, then a nutrient management plan could be...

This week, the Tillage Edge podcast links in with the National Tillage Conference webinar which covered a number of areas to help farmers utilise fertiliser more efficiently and also addressed where farmers can reduce fertiliser inputs. The podcast covers the excellent question and answer sections which cover the main topics from the webinar. Dr. David Wall, Dr. Richie Hackett and Dermot Forristal...

This week’s Tillage Edge podcast chats to John Mahon who has been working in various roles in Irish agriculture over the past thirty years and John gives his perspective of conservation agriculture and grass weed control as it stands in the industry today. He points out that there are a number of areas to be concerned about - especially the protection of existing herbicides and dealing with herbic...

In the first Tillage Edge podcast for 2022, Michael Hennessy talks to Will Stokes, a tillage farmer in Tipperary, who is participating in the Signpost Farm programme. Will and his Teagasc advisor, Conor Kavanagh, discuss how Will is making changes on his farm, particularly around caring for the soils. Will is focused on building soil reserves of P & K and as part of that imports organic manure...

In the final podcast for 2021, The Tillage Edge looks forward to 2022 with Shay Phelan and Ciaran Collins, both Tillage Specialists in Teagasc. They discuss the major challenges facing farmers such as high fertiliser prices and the new CAP. There is a lot to play for in tillage in 2022 and due to the higher costs, especially with fertilisers, many are commenting that growing cereals this year is a...

Andy Mahon, an Irish man and farm manager of a large farm in the UK, returns to the Tillage Edge this week to discuss with Michael Hennessy how his season went from June to December this year. Andy reported exceptional yields (11t/ha) from his winter wheats in 2021 (on a direct drill system) but was disappointed with the spring wheat. Andy described the harvest as ‘the wettest dry weather’ they ha...

Tom Tierney, a farmer in North Kildare, who converted to a direct drill system six years ago, and Ivan Whitten, his Teagasc advisor, join Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to discuss Tom’s farming system and how sustainability is at the core of all his decisions. Teagasc have set up a network of farms, under the Signpost Farm banner, to help demonstrate sustainable practices and...

2021 will be remembered by most people as an excellent year for tillage farmers. However the year wasn’t without its ups and downs in terms of weather and other events and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Michael Hennessy looks back on 2021 with Shay Phelan and Ciaran Collins, tillage specialists in Teagasc, to hear how it treated tillage farmers. Ciaran first highlighted the issues around the...

Jim McCarthy, a farmer from Kildare, joins Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to talk about his farming business in Romania. The company that Jim manages is farming close to 20,000 hectares, employs over 150 staff and ships all of the grain grown through the Black Sea port in Constanta. Jim gives a fascinating insight into the farming business which grows a wide range of crops in...

Dermot Forristal, Oak Park, Teagasc joins Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to discuss getting machines ready for the winter. Dermot focuses on protecting sprayers from frost and says that any heavy frost can cause damage but the most damaging time tends to be a sustained period of frosty weather over a week or so. Dermot recommends larger sprayers would need 10-15L of concentra...

John Crowley, a tillage farmer in Wexford, has been working closely with Teagasc to improve his profitability in the past few years as part of the Teagasc/Boortmalt Joint Programme and he joins Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast. John is also interested in reducing his GHG emission on the farm in areas such as cover crops and straw incorporation, as well as hedgerow/forestry mana...

Fertiliser prices continue to rise putting pressure on crop margins for 2022. Shay Phelan and Ciaran Collins, Teagasc Tillage Specialists, join Michael Hennessy on this week's Tillage Edge podcast with practical ways to reduce your farm's dependence on chemical fertilisers and also how to make the most of every kilogram purchased. Shay explains how a grower applying good quality cattle slurry (3,0...

Oilseed rape crops have powered ahead this year and most crops are in great shape for the winter. Plantings of oilseed rape are up by 30% and forward prices are up by nearly 50%. But, disease control is important in all crops to ensure full yields are realised and Dr. Stephen Kildea, from Teagasc, joined Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to discuss disease and growth regulation...

Aphids are BYDV vectors and controlling aphid spread in cereals is important and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Dr Louise McNamara, from Oak Park, joined Michael Hennessy to discuss aphids and the threat of BYDV for Autumn 2021. The first step towards controlling aphid spread is to delay the date of planting which reduces the length of time the crop is exposed to high aphid numbers. Louise e...

The Tillage TAMS scheme is designed to help tillage farmers modernise whilst addressing challenges like reducing pesticides and increasing farm safety and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Michael Hennessy was joined by Oliver Molloy from the Department of Agriculture, to chat through the ins and outs of a farmer applying for a grant. Firstly, Oliver explained that there are over 2,000 applican...

The majority of seed sown on tillage farms every year is Department of Agriculture certified seed and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, it’s part two of the seed story that tracks the seeds journey from the seed growers field through the seed assembler to the final customer. Gerry Lohan, from the Seed Inspection Division of the Department of Agriculture, outlines the checks made by inspectors a...

The majority of seed sown on tillage farms every year is Department of Agriculture certified seed and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, it is the first in a two-part series that tracks the seed’s journey from breeder through an Irish seed assembler, taking in the seed grower along the way. Donal Fitzgerald, Goldcrop joins Michael Hennessy to chat about the process of assembling seed and outline...

Weed control is one of the first jobs that needs to be completed after a crop has been planted with a number of options available and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, tillage specialists Shay Phelan and Ciaran Collins join Michael Hennessy to discuss this topic in more detail. Weed control options can be divided into pre or post emergence of the crop and Shay explains that pre emergence has ma...

Day 2 of the National Crops Forum delved into carbon farming and nitrate leaching on tillage farms and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, you’ll hear from the excellent questions and answers sessions from the forum. Dr Gary Lanigan from Teagasc told the forum that even though the corporate world is very interested in sustainability and carbon capture it remains to be seen who will pay farmers fo...