The Irish Tillage and Land Use Society (ITLUS) is continuing its 50-year anniversary celebrations at its winter conference this December.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Visions for the Future” and it will extend to two days – Wednesday, December 4, and Thursday, December 5.

The first session looks like it will be a lively one. The conference will begin on Wednesday, December 4, at 3:45pm, with registration beforehand.

Colm McCarthy – an economist in University College Dublin (UCD) – will ask is rural Ireland in decline? Next up is Cara Augustenberg, also from UCD; she will talk on “an environment worth fighting for” and no doubt stir up some debate among the audience.

Gerry Boyle of Teagasc will close proceedings for the evening speaking on the tillage sector in Irish agriculture.

The group’s AGM will take place at 6:00pm and a dinner will follow at 7:30pm.

Day 2

On Thursday, a summary of ITLUS at 50 will kick off the day. This will be followed by the keynote address from Bill Callanan of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food who will speak on “Tillage in Ireland as we head towards 2050”.

Ed Flatman from Limagrain and Louise Brinkworth of Corteva Agriscience will speak on evolving technologies for crop production. This session will be chaired by Rob Coleman.

After lunch the topic will turn to “Future Trends in Mechanisation”. This session will be chaired by Barth Landy and will kick off with Ewan McFarlane of Origin Enterprises. He will talk about how data and digital agriculture is changing tillage farming.

Darragh Mullin of New Holland will give his opinion on the session’s topic from a manufacturer’s point of view, while Professor Kevin McDonnell of UCD will make a presentation entitled “The Future Direction of Irish Tillage Mechanisation”.

The ITLUS winter conference takes place at the Clanard Court Hotel, Athy, Co. Kildare on December 4 and December 5.

Registration on day one will begin at 3:00pm and proceedings will begin at 3:45pm. On day two registration is available from 9:30am and proceedings will start at 10:00am.

If you would like to attend the conference, you can email: [email protected] and state if you will attend on Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday evening and/or Thursday.