Oat produce business Flahavan’s has launched its Oat Grower of the Year Awards competition for 2024.
The awards recognise the efforts of both conventional and organic oat growers, the Waterford-based food business said.
Flahavan’s, which has been producing porridge for more than 200 years, said it will evaluate their growers based on overall grain quality, considering facts such as kernal content, bushel weight, moisture levels, aroma, colour, and cleanliness.
The growers will be judged by Ciaran Collins, who is a tillage specialist from Teagasc. His task will be to review the shortlisted growers from each category, narrowing down the field to four finalists in each.
The finalists will then be reviewed in more detail by Collins to asses them as growers, who will be judged on cereal knowledge; farm practices and techniques; and environmental and sustainability efforts.
Based on those criteria, Collins will select a winner in each category.
Johnny Flahavan, the operations manager at Flahavan’s, said that the business’ growers play “a very important role…in delivering high-quality oats to Flahavan’s customers.
“The competition provides a platform to recognise their hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence,” he said.
Flahavan’s sources their conventional oats from within a 60-mile radius of its mill at Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford.
The company also said that one of its priorities is to source its organic oats from the Irish market.
Last year’s winners of the Flahavan’s Oat Grower of the Year Awards conventional oats category was the Keane family of Cappoquin Estate, where Charles Keane was one of the first Irish growers to introduce tramlines to Irish cereal growing in the 1980s.
The winner of last year’s organic category was Evan Delaney, who farms tillage crops, plus a small area of livestock, in Fethard, Co. Tipperary.
Both growers demonstrated top quality oats grown with consideration for the environment, Flahavan’s said.
Each finalist will be rewarded with a Flahavan’s hamper, while the overall winners will receive the title of Flahavan’s Oat Grower of the Year 2024, along with a Waterford Crystal Trophy and a monetary prize.
The winners will be announced in early October.