BETTER Farm Crops - Wexford

The farm is run by father and son George and Ken Williamson. Situated in South Wexford, it is a typical farming operation of the area. They farm a combination of winter and spring crops with some contracting as part of their business. The soil type is mainly heavy to medium.

Breakdown of 2010 land use on the Williamson's farm
Cropping	Approx area 2010	Av. yields 2006-08
Spring barley	49 ha	7.1 t/ha
Spring wheat	15 ha	7.5 t/ha
Winter cereals	18 ha
Other	50 ha

The Williamsons rent approx. 75% of the 131 ha farmed and carry out a range of contracting services locally from ploughing and sowing cereals to beet harvesting. Cropping on the farm ranges from winter wheat and oats to spring barley and oats and maize with some Miscanthus. The Williamsons have an interest in the energy company Wexgen who hope to process the miscanthus into briquettes in the near future.

The main short to medium term challenge for the farm business is to work towards a one man system from the current two man system while maintaining farm income. This reduction in labour availability will have a significant influence on rotation, machinery replacement policy and contracting capability.