The Tillage Edge

Tillage farmers were part of a roller coaster year in 2022.  The year started out with uncertainty due to high costs, then to very high grain prices in mid-year, then to lower plantings in the autumn and a falling grain market at present.        Ciarán Collins and Shay Phelan join Michael Hennessy on the latest Tillage Edge podcast to discuss the highs and lows of 2022 and pick out the lessons tha...

There are many different career paths people can take within the tillage industry, from tillage farming to all the way to becoming the CEO of large businesses.     Barry Larkin, CEO of Acorn, joins Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to chat about his career to date and the varied journey he took to his current role.   Barry started his education in UCD and then spent some time as...

Despite the very wet weather over the past two months, winter oilseed rape has grown strongly but these conditions are also good for foliar disease development.     Dr. Stephen Kildea joins the Tillage Edge podcast this week to talk about disease levels in oilseed rape and if control is necessary.   Dr. Kildea encourages all growers to walk their fields to look for Phoma and Light Leaf Spot (LLS)...

The new CAP starts in January 2023 and it brings with it new rules which farmers need to follow to receive their payments.     Michael Moloney, from the Department of Agriculture, joins the Tillage Edge podcast to chat through some of the changes around conditionality, especially land management issues.   Michael explains that, even though there are some new rules, most of the rules in the new CAP...

The wet autumn has slowed crop emergence and given soil pests such as slugs an upper hand to inflict damage on emerging crops and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Ciaran Collins, a Tillage Specialist in Teagasc, discusses how to monitor numbers and deploy control measures where necessary.   Ciaran explains that slug damage could come in a number of forms from grazing leaves, seed hollowing or...

Tillage farmers will be required to register for the Fertiliser Database with the Department of Agriculture from January next year.     Finbarr Regan from the Department of Agriculture talks to Michael Hennessy on the latest Tillage Edge podcast about how farmers will interact with the fertiliser register when buying fertilisers in 2023.   Finbarr explains that all farmers purchasing fertiliser wi...

The weather through 2022 has adversely affected potato yields and a reduction of at least 15% is expected.     The very wet weather has delayed harvest and more yield losses are expected from these unharvested crops.     On the Tillage Edge this week Shay Phelan, a potato specialist in Teagasc, discusses how potato farmers are coping with the wet conditions and extremely high costs this year.   Sh...

Later sown crops that did not receive a pre-emergence herbicide present more challenges for growers to control grass weeds this autumn and Ciaran Collins, a Tillage Specialist, joined the Tillage Edge podcast to discuss how to manage these later sown crops over the coming months, including weed control options.   Ciaran emphasises the importance of early control of annual meadow grass in winter ba...

Ireland has a relatively small organic sector and the number of tillage farmers within this is smaller again, however there is now a sustained drive from the EU and the government to convert more farms to organic production and to grow this market.   Martin Bourke is a specialist tillage, organic advisor with Teagasc and he joins Michael Hennessy on the latest Tillage Edge podcast to discuss some...

Winter cereal plantings are continuing apace this week, albeit growers are grabbing every chance they have through the bands of rain every 2-3 days.     Last year BYDV was a problem on many farms, and not only farms with early sown crops, but later sown crops in the south of the country were also badly affected in places.     It’s important to understand when crops are most at risk and the best st...

Continuing a series of interviews with tillage farmers who are involved with the various programmes in Teagasc, on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Michael Hennessy finds out more about the Enable Conservation Tillage Project which enables farmers to embrace non-plough based tillage systems whilst at the same time cope with grass weeds that can emerge.   Bill Shanahan, a farmer from Waterford, an...

Following on from the Crops Forum which was held recently, on this week’s episode of the Tillage Edge podcast, you’ll hear from moderator Andy Doyle discussing the issue of fertiliser supply and costs with Kieran McEvoy from the IFA, Clive Carter from IGG, as well as Donal Maloney from Tirlán, Enda McDonald from Grassland Agro, Bill Callanan from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine,...

The Crops Forum was held recently with an excellent line up and a very interesting discussion from a panel of experts across the country.      And on this week’s episode of the Tillage Edge podcast, you’ll hear from moderator Andy Doyle discussing the financial risks of the year ahead with Kieran McEvoy from the IFA, Clive Carter from IGG, as well as Donal Maloney from Tirlán, Enda McDonald from G...

Application of pesticides is highly regulated but new rules are coming down the track which are being formulated by the EU at the moment and Anne Marie Dillon from the Department of Agriculture and the Marine joined Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to outline what is contained in these EU proposals.   The areas of concern include: increased recording at farm level, reductions o...

Vincent Macken is a Tillage Signpost farmer in county Meath and along with his Teagasc advisor, Shane Kennedy, he joined Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to discuss sustainable farming in practice.      Vincent said he is developing practices on the farm such as increasing the number of crops in the rotation and focusing on healthy soils both of which are helping to reduce inpu...

The dry soils are making oilseed rape weed control difficult and choosing the correct options will maximise control but also minimise crop effects.     On this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Ciarán Collins, a tillage specialist in Teagasc, discusses the benefits and drawbacks from a number of different approaches.   Ciarán explains that residual herbicides don’t work well in dry soils and growers sh...

Solar electricity from Photo Voltaic (PV) panels can be suitable for tillage farmers who are using a lot of energy such as potato or grain stores and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Barry Caslin, a Bioenergy Specialist in Teagasc, discusses how PV can be useful to tillage farmers.   Barry explains that to get the best from these systems, self-use of the generated electricity will give the bes...

Oilseed rape will give comparable margins in 2023 to winter wheat and is a crop worth consideration on most farms and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast,  Shay Phelan and Dermot Forristal from Teagasc discuss the varieties, establishment methods and early crop management of oilseed rape.   According to Shay, choosing a variety with high light leaf spot and pod shatter resistance is a good startin...

The Tillage Edge chatted to Andy Mahon, who is a farm manager in North Bedfordshire in the UK.  Andy, originally from Dublin, is almost finished the harvest already.  Andy said this has been the earliest, and easiest harvest he has ever been involved in.  Crops developed earlier than normal through the spring and the lack of water has not helped yields.  Andy said yields are 10% lower than the far...

Ted Massey, from the Nitrates Section at the Department of Agriculture, joined the Tillage Edge this week to discuss the new rules around stubble cultivation.  These rules are intended to encourage plants to grow and mop up nitrogen, which could be leached to ground water.  Ted chatted through a number of important clarifications to the rules and how farmers can best follow the rules at farm level...

Jim McCarthy joined the Tillage Edge podcast from Romania this week to give an update on the progress of his harvest and an overview of the harvest in his part of the world.     Jim said that the lack of rainfall so far in the growing season has been compounded by recent prolonged high temperatures and as a result, wheat yields are 40% lower than normal.     He also said he thinks the summer crops...

The harvest so far has been a mixed affair with relatively poor winter barley yields across the country.     On this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, John Pettit and Conor Kavanagh, both Teagasc tillage advisors, discuss the results so far from the south east and the south of the country.   Conor says the poor winter barley yields are probably a combination of earlier drilling which increased the leve...

Shay Phelan talks to Dermot Forristal and Brendan Burke from Oak Park on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to discuss combine harvester settings to ensure that crops are harvested as efficiently as possible.    Both Dermot and Brendan emphasise the need to adjust the setting to take account of the crop and the harvesting conditions to get a good sample and to reduce losses.    Both also discuss how...

Dr. Steven Kildea joins Shay Phelan on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to talk about potato blight.    Steven describes the conditions that favour the development of blight in a crop and also how to control the fungus.   Steven also discusses how a new strain of blight has been found in Ireland which has resistance to one of the popular fungicides used both commercially and by hobby growers.   Fo...

Input prices have skyrocketed but at the same time the value of outputs have also increased.  The value of chemical P and K has doubled, therefore the value of the P and K in straw has also doubled.     On the latest Tillage Edge podcast, Mark Plunkett and Dermot Forristal from Teagasc, discuss the value of straw and how best to incorporate straw this year.   Dermot also chats about the best techn...