Recap: Missed the National Tillage Conference?
This year's Teagasc National Tillage Conference, held on Wednesday, January 25th, focused on mitigating the risks that challenge future sustainable production.
Aiming to deliver science-led strategies to manage the most important pests and diseases, the conference also detailed the added value opportunities developing around plant protein crops. After being held virtually for the past two years, this year's conference took a hybrid format with updates and outputs provided from the latest research at Teagasc Oak Park, in collaboration with our national and international partners, presented across five sessions. A full recording of the day is available to rewatch below.
Conference opening
Teagasc Director, Prof. Frank O'Mara, opening the conference, explained that 2022 resulted in the holy trinity for tillage farmers, with good yields, good prices and good weather, while record yields of many cereal crops were also recorded - including spring barley, winter oilseed rape, spring oats and winter wheat, with the latter equalling its previous record.
Session one
Session one looked at developing tools to support BYDV management. Lousie McNamara provided an update on the impact of BYDV, while Sacha White of ADAS discussed seeking better BYDV treatment decisions.
Session two
The second session focused on crop management in the context of present and future challenges. Chaired by Siobhán Walsh, Irish Farmers Journal, wheat disease control for the 2023 season was discussed by Steven Kildea, an update on Ramularia control in winter and spring barley was provided by Deirdre Doyle and Jack Jameson gave an overview grower's perceptions about crop establishment systems.
Session three
The third session on the day focused on the opportunity of developing added value through plant protein crops. John Spink, joined by Teagasc collegues Shay Hannon, Sinead Fitzsimons and Ewen Mullins, looked at the options available.
Session four
In session four, Michael Hennessy, Teagasc Head of Crops Knowledge Transfer Department, give an overview of Gatekeeper Express as a method of recording farm records on a simple to use platform. In the video below, he also chaired a session on research snapshots, which involved brief presentations from the latest research being carried out in a number of important areas.
Session five
Andy Dolye chaired the final session of the day. Grass weeds, herbicide resistance and control practices - in the context of current practices and future challenges - was discussed by Vijaya Bhaskar, Teagasc. In addition, John Cussans, NIAB, gave a presentation on how farmers in the UK are managing difficult to control grass weeds using intergrated pest management (IPM).