The Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed will open the Teagasc National Tillage Conference next Wednesday, January 31. ‘Building a more resilient tillage industry’ is the theme of this year’s conference, which takes place in the Lyrath Estate Hotel, Co. Kilkenny.
The morning session of the conference will have a new twist. Eimear Gallagher, Teagasc, will inform the crowd on the use of Irish cereals in novel baked and extruded snack formulations.
John Finnan will update growers on research in winter oat agronomy, while Steven Kildea will describe disease control with a declining number of effective fungicides. A panel discussion will also follow an update on research projects.
- Insecticide resistance in the grain aphid in Irish crops;
- Improving Irish crop varieties;
- Management differences between six and two-row winter barley varieties;
- Diagnosing soil compaction;
- Assessing weather-based forecasting of ramularia in spring barley.
Focus on fertiliser
The afternoon session of the conference will focus on fertiliser. Teagasc’s Richie Hackett will give the prospects for site-specific management of nitrogen for cereals, while David Wall will give a presentation on maximising yield potential through soil and fertiliser management.
There will be an audience survey, before a panel discussion, on coping with current challenges in the tillage industry. Prof. Gerry Boyle, Teagasc director, will close the conference.
Registration for the conference begins at 9:30am and Minister Creed will begin proceedings at 10:30am.
This is a Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine approved Knowledge Transfer Tillage event.