A Kilkenny green feed wheat-grower husband-and-wife team has beaten stiff competition from across the country to win the Tirlán quality grain supplier of the year award for 2022.

Thomas Butler and his wife Annabel, from Bennettsbridge in Kilkenny, were the “stand out” over all winners for their diversified farming operation which includes tillage, grassland and woodlands.

The family farm includes 250ac of tillage, 120ac of grassland and 60ac of woodland.

Tirlán chair, John Murphy with the 2022 overall winners Annabel and Thomas Butler with Aoife Murphy and James Hickey from Tirlán

The Butler family operate a varied rotation of crops and they have a passion for heritage wheat varieties.

Tirlán’s chair, John Murphy, said choosing an overall winner from among the “13 high calibre” 2022 finalists was “extremely difficult” in a bumper harvest year that delivered on “price, weather and yields”.

“The excellence of our suppliers is something we in Tirlán never take for granted,” he said.

“Generations of commitment, knowledge and expertise are what set us apart from growers all over the world.

“We’re passionate about what we do and it shows in the high-quality produce that comes from our family farms.

“In harvest 2022, we took in our highest ever volume of premium grains and delivered an additional €3 million in bonus payments to growers of these premium crops. We remain firmly focused on adding value to our premium grains portfolio through our investment in innovation,” the Tirlán chair said at the awards ceremony today (Monday, February 13) in Kilkenny.

Tirlán grain supplier of the year

But what made Thomas and Annabel Butler stand out in a very competitive field was the wide range of break crops grown on the farm which in turn helped them deliver a top-of-its-class crop of green feed wheat.

The winning crop averaged a specific weight of 80.8km/h and 11% protein at a moisture of 14.1% across 310t.

Although today’s award ceremony in Kilkenny primarily gave Tirlán’s 13 top quality suppliers an opportunity to enjoy the spotlight, it was also, according to John Kealy, head of grains at Tirlán, a day to acknowledge the “excellence” of the Irish crops produced by all of the co-op’s 1,100 growers.

“We doubled our grain volumes in 2022 through our high-spec oats mill in Portlaoise.

“We have ambitions to continue to develop our milling capacity and extend our capability to take advantage of emerging market opportunities,” Kealy said.

Latest market figures suggest the co-op was the largest buyer and user of premium Irish grains last year and paid out in the region of €100 million to grain growers for harvest 2022 as grain intake hit more than 300,000t.

According to Tirlán, with the mill in Portlaoise at near capacity, the possibility of a major investment could be on the cards in the short term to enable the co-op to meet its ambitions.

The 2022 Tirlán quality grain award winners: