The Irish Tillage and Land Use Society (ITLUS) will hold its annual winter conference next week. The conference takes place on Thursday, December 6, in the Clanard Court Hotel, Athy, Co. Kildare.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Optimising organic manures in tillage systems’.

Dr. Patrick Forrestal from Teagasc will describe how organic manures contribute to soil health, while Duncan Rose of NRM Laboratories will explain the variability of nutrient content in organic manures.

Two farmers will then take part in a discussion and describe their experiences using organic manures. Pat Keenan (Kildare) and Donal O’Keeffe (Westmeath) will be joined by Dermot Forristal from Teagasc.

After lunch, the focus turns to the regulation of organic manures. Seamus Barron, from the nitrates section of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will go through some of the rules and regulations.

Ivan Whitten – a Teagasc tillage advisor – will describe how to account for organic nutrient use in your records.

Very importantly, Brendan Cooney, the chief environmental officer with Wexford County Council will talk about protecting our environment while optimising organic manures.

The conference will finish with a panel discussion between the speakers, which will be followed by the ITLUS AGM at 5:00pm.

The conference begins at 10:00am and registration is from 9:30am.

Those wishing to attend should confirm their attendance by December 3 by emailing: [email protected].