The overall winner of this year’s Dairygold Malting Barley competition for 2020 has been revealed as Castletownroche tillage farmer David O’Gorman.
David, who farms just outside Castletownroche, near Fermoy, Co. Cork, “consistently produces excellent quality grain while prioritising the environment by protecting all waterways and biodiversity” while he farms his lands on the banks of the Blackwater river in Castletownroche, the southern cooperative says.
He is further described as “an advocator of good crop rotation, which includes protein beans in his case, all of which earned him the title.
The beans are usually followed with winter wheat, then Winter barley and back to spring malting in year three as he can manage the protein element of the crop with more certainty at that stage.
The Dairygold grower achieved 3.2t/ac of high-quality malting barley on average in last year’s harvest and attributes a lot of his success to focusing on soil fertility down through the years.
L-R: Michael English, Dairygold area sales manager; and David O’Gorman
Soil samples are taken regularly, and a crop nutrient plan is formed based on these results with advice from Margaret O’Callaghan in Fermoy and area sales manager Michael English.
Commenting, Dairygold’s head of commercial Seamus O’Mahony said: “David’s attention to detail is obvious and commendable.
His planning, technical and machinery expertise as well as record keeping is very impressive. His wealth of experience and knowledge of tillage and malting industries has stood by him in this year’s competition.
The Dairygold representative added: “He has embraced environmental schemes and has developed an impressive knowledge of what the soil has to offer when cared and nourished for in a way that brings the best out from it and rewarded and replenished accordingly.
“This carefully balanced care of the environment confirms in our view that he is the overall winner of the 2020 Dairygold Malting Barley Competition – he excelled in all scores,” he said.
Dairygold Co-Op chairman John O Gorman congratulated David on his achievement and thanked all four finalists on efforts made throughout the year, adding:
It is very important that all tillage growers get the opportunity to showcase their sustainability credentials, the standards they achieve in husbandry and the contribution that they make to our business.
“As a company, tillage growers are a very important part of Dairygold’s business, and we remain committed to supporting and developing this part of our business into the future.”