Germinal Ireland recently appointed Galway man Nicky Byrne to the position of technical sales manager.

Formerly of Teagasc’s Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Byrne is from a suckler and sheep farm in Oughterard.

The Galway native holds a degree in agricultural science, specialising in dairy business, from University College Dublin and is currently in the final stage of completing his PhD with Teagasc Moorepark and Queen’s University Belfast.

In his new role, Byrne will cover the south-west region to further the level of technical support provided to customers and farmers by Germinal Ireland.

Welcoming the appointment, Germinal Ireland’s general manager Dermot Campion said: “We have waited some time to find a person with Nicky’s experience to fill this role.”

Germinal

The overall objective of Byrne’s PhD is to influence the development of improved perennial ryegrass varieties suited to intensive grazing systems, through improving evaluation protocols and identifying traits regulating grazing efficiency.

As part of this, the incoming sales manager was involved in evaluating grass varieties on commercial farms throughout Ireland – a first of its kind, it is claimed.

The results of his work have “greatly added to the understanding of variety performance and will add to the knowledge available to farmers to increase the efficiency of their grazing systems”, according to Germinal.

Byrne himself commented, noting: “The level of grass utilisation has huge potential to increase nationally, through improved management, soil fertility and the use of high quality varieties, generally those with a high PPI (Pasture Profit Index) value.”

In his new role with Germinal, Byrne hopes to share his knowledge to improve farm profitability.