Irish Growers Achieve Record Cereal Yields in 2011
25 January 2011
Ireland has globally high cereal yields and over
the last decade, the highest average wheat and
second highest average barley yields in the world.
Speaking at the Teagasc National Tillage Conference
in Kilkenny today, Wednesday 25 January, John Spink,
Head of Crops Science, Teagasc, said that despite
this history of high yields, 2011 produced some of
the highest yields on record, with an average
increase of 13% on 2010 yields.
He said: ”Favourable weather conditions in the
spring resulted in good leaf and tiller formation,
resulting in increased crop canopy sizes and ear
numbers. This early spring growth was particularly
important for spring barley. From May to harvest
temperatures were below normal and average solar
radiation was above normal, which combined to
prolong grain fill and allow crops to fill the high
grain numbers.
This combination of weather conditions resulted in
the record yields achieved in 2011.”
Professor Ian Crute, chief scientist at the
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board in
the UK, delivered the keynote address to the 500
tillage farmers attending. He addressed the
“Challenges and Opportunities for Northern European
Agriculture” saying that the global food system
needs radical redesign. He described five primary
challenges facing the sector:
- Balancing future demand and
supply sustainably
- Addressing the threat of future
food price volatility
- Ending hunger
- Food production in a low
emissions world
- Maintaining biodiversity and
ecosystem services while feeding the world
He stressed the need for efficient land use and its management to meet these challenges, describing it as “sustainable intensification”.
Speaking at the conference, Andy Doyle, tillage
journalist with the Irish Farmers Journal said that
there is general consensus that demand for grain and
the prospects for grain prices will be good in the
years ahead. He said that the challenge now facing
the sector is to continuously supply this demand in
the medium to long term as global population
increases.
Research to investigate the issue of low protein
levels in malting barley commenced at the Teagasc
Crops Research Centre in Oak Park in 2011. This
multi-year research programme is examining various
aspects of fertilizer nitrogen use to determine the
most appropriate strategy for spring barley.
Preliminary results from the first year were
presented at today’s conference. The importance of
accurate and even application of fertilizers to
crops was stressed along with the key role of
getting the mechanics of the fertilizer spreader
right to achieve efficient use of fertilizer.
Share farming arrangements are a relatively new
business model used by Irish tillage farmers. Share
farming allows the landowner and a share farmer to
carry on separate farming businesses on the same
land without forming a partnership or company. Ollie
Whyte from Naul in County Dublin outlined how he has
entered into share farming arrangements with other
partners.
