KILDARE: Over 200 people attend tillage sector conference in Naas hotel

Over 220 farmers and representatives of the Tillage Sector attended Quinns of Baltinglass’ Sustainable Tillage Conference held in The Killashee Hotel last Wednesday.

Quinns launched a new Sustainable Tillage Programme which will monitor best practices on 6 tillage farmers in the Leinster region. The results from the monitored farms will be shared with Quinns customers throughout the year (anyone can subscribe to get updates by emailing subscribe@quinns.ie).

William Quinn spoke of the changes that Quinns have made and are planning to make in order to be as sustainable as possible which will benefit the customer as well as the environment.

Valerie Hobson, Head of Feed at Quinns, also spoke about the carbon footprint equivalents (c02e) of feed using native grains vs imported grains. Quinns are a large buyer of native cereals whilst also being a feed miller. Valerie outlined how a typical beef ration containing Irish grain and protein had a carbon footprint of 281kg of CO2e/t. That’s 240kg/t of CO2 lower than a comparable ration containing imported maize and soya, which had a carbon footprint of 521kg of CO2e/t. carbon per tonne.

The Quinns nutritionist also outlined the differences in the carbon footprint of dairy rations. An Irish cereal and bean based 19% dairy pellet came in at 1,298kg of CO2e/t, while the maize/soya-based 19% dairy pellet had a carbon footprint of 2,098kg of CO2e/t making the Irish cereal/bean based pellet to have 60% less emissions. 

John O’Loughlin of Grassland Agro spoke passionately about sustainable production systems and how soil health needs to be the forefront of the tillage industry. The farmers attending agreed, with over 81% of them have soil tested in the last 12 months according to an audience poll.

The interest in liquid fertiliser was a hot topic on the night with Edward Dickinson of Omex presenting. He gave a very interactive and positive presentation on the benefits of liquid fertiliser. According to another audience poll on the night, 68% of the attendees may consider using liquid fertiliser in 2023.

Shay Phelan of Teagasc gave a very interesting talk on grass weeds and the need to take control of their own crops and not rely totally on their agronomist. 

Phelim Dolan of grain brokers Comex McKinnon spoke about the challenges that growers and traders face in the current economic climate and touched on war, politics and weather but the message from Phelim was clear – take profit when the opportunity presents itself.