Next Tuesday, September 3, will see a major event take place on catch crops in Co. Wexford. Cover crop plots which were planted in mid-August will be on display, as well as live sowing demonstrations.

Proceedings will kick off at 10:00am with an introduction to the benefits and different types of cover crops available to farmers from Eoin Lyons – Teagasc malting barley advisor.

James Doran – a drystock advisor in Teagasc Enniscorthy – will discuss potential markets for catch crops and the possible profit opportunities from catch crops when used as a feed source for livestock farmers.

Catch crop plots

A number of different establishment methods were used to plant the catch crops on the farm and, almost a month on from the sowing date, attendees should be able to look at some of the differences in the crops.

Nitrogen trial

It should be noted that these plots will form part of a trial being carried out as part of the Teagasc/Boortmalt joint programme.

The trial will examine the amount of nitrogen (N) taken up by the cover crops and – in turn – try to quantify how much of this N is taken up by the following malting barley crop.

Machinery demonstration

A live machinery demonstration will be the last stop of the day. A range of discs, grubbers and drills will be demoed by a number of different machinery brands.

Ciarán Hickey – Teagasc tillage advisor in Enniscorthy – will interview each machinery operator and detail some of the important information.

This event will take place at 10:00am on September 3 on Crosswinds farm, Tinnashrule, Ferns, Co. Wexford; the Postcode is: Y21 TX82