Top of the crops

For six decades, the Crops Research Centre at Teagasc’s Oak Park campus has been at the forefront of development and innovation in crop science and agronomy. Richie Hackett tells us more.

2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the official opening of the Crops Research Centre at Oak Park, Carlow. During these 60 years, enormous changes in Irish crop production have occurred, many of which were instigated by research carried out at Oak Park. 

We invite you to join us to mark the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Crops Research Centre at Oak Park, Teagasc. For a family day on Saturday 13 July.  The event is open to all and will highlight the advances made over the centre’s 60-year history.

What is now Oak Park was originally part of a large estate that, at its peak, covered approximately 10,000ha and was owned by five generations of the Bruen family, who lived in Oak Park house. By 1954, when the last Bruen died leaving no male heir, the estate had shrunk to around 600ha. This was eventually sold to a farming syndicate, who ran it as a commercial farm for a few years. 

In 1960, the estate was acquired by the Land Commission, following which An Foras Talúntais – now Teagasc – acquired 350ha and Oak Park house. In the following years, the house was converted to laboratories and offices, and an extensive field research programme in the area of arable crops was established on the attached lands.

The Oak Park campus in the early years

Yield of dreams

Crop production in Ireland circa 1964 was very different to what it is today, explains Richie Hackett, a Research Officer at Oak Park.

“Spring sown crops predominated – including spring barley, wheat, oats, sugar beet and potatoes, with spring barley being the largest crop on an area basis. Oats were in steep decline, partly as a result of a reduced requirement for feeding work horses. Yields were much lower, with spring barley yields typically less than 1t/ha compared to today’s standards of over 7.5t/ha.”

While some herbicides were available for cereals, weed control was far more limited than today. Chemical control of diseases had yet to be introduced on a wide scale and machinery was small by today’s standards, making crop production labour-intensive.  This was particularly evident in sugar beet production where multigerm seed was the norm, requiring manual thinning of the resultant clumps of plants and in many cases manual weeding. 

Research at Oak Park in the 1970s and 1980s helped develop production systems that took full advantage of new technologies to improve yields and make production systems less labour-intensive, Richie continues. “For example, work at Oak Park pioneered the integration of monogerm sugar beet seed and new herbicides – removing the need for thinning and manual weeding, respectively – into far more labour-efficient and higher-yielding systems, practised up until the demise of the sugar beet industry in the mid-2000s.”

On the right ‘-cide’ of history

In the field of plant pathology, research at Oak Park was at the forefront of integrating emerging fungicides into production systems that today allow Irish producers to achieve amongst the highest yields in the world, despite having a climate that is conducive to yield-robbing fungal diseases. As new fungicides were brought to the market, research at Oak Park evaluated their efficacy and identified the most appropriate way to integrate them into disease control programmes. 

“For many years, a key part of the research at Oak Park has been monitoring the susceptibility of various fungal pathogens to available fungicides, as it became clear from an early stage that fungi could evolve to overcome effects of fungicide, thereby rendering a given fungicide less effective,” explains Richie.

“This facilitates better advice to growers regarding the most effective fungicides for a given situation. Recently, similar issues have arisen with herbicides, and now herbicide resistance amongst weed populations has become another key research area at Oak Park.”

Grain-ful employment

Over the years, much work has been devoted to developing and supporting the use of Irish grain in premium markets; specifically, focusing on producing barley suitable for malting and subsequent use in the brewing and distilling industries.

A considerable amount of agronomy work, examining factors affecting the suitability of barley for malting, has provided growers with a template to achieve the required specifications, says Richie. 

“Work at Oak Park was also instrumental in supporting the introduction of rapid protein analysers at merchants intake points, allowing rapid identification of the suitability of grain for malting.

“Today, the newly established National Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Oak Park will continue to support the malting, brewing and distilling industries in producing high-value Irish grain products.”

Plot harvesting technology has improved immensely from the early years to today

Bred for success

At an early stage in its history, two breeding programmes were established at Oak Park; one focused on breeding potatoes, and one focused on forage crops such as perennial ryegrass and white clover.

“Little could it have been imagined in those early days how successful these two small programmes were going to be,” notes Richie.  

“Potato varieties bred at Oak Park are now grown around the world, but perhaps the most recognisable variety grown in Ireland is Rooster. Initially released to the market in 1991, today it is the most widely grown ware potato in Ireland. The forage breeding programme has also been successful, with many varieties of perennial ryegrass and white and red clover released onto the market.”

Increasingly integrating biotechnology into both programmes’ selection process has allowed more precise identification of varieties with the required traits.

As well as optimising the agronomy of established crops such as wheat and barley, considerable effort has been devoted to assessing the potential of new crops. Forage maize is one such crop; through decades of research and development at Oak Park, it is now commonly grown in Ireland.

“Research has been done on energy crops, such as miscanthus and willow,” adds Richie. “Notably, the agronomy of legume crops such as beans, peas and lupins has been studied with a view to increasing the amount of home-grown protein produced in Ireland.”

Made to measure

The research techniques and technology used in both field and laboratory have changed hugely since the ‘60s, says Richie.

“For the longest time, the go-to tools for lab studies of fungal pathogens were a microscope and a petri dish, with suitable agar substrate for culturing the fungi and studying fungicide efficacy. While both are still used, the advent of modern molecular biology techniques – such as PCR, that allows the genetic code of the fungus to be studied – has enabled far more sophisticated and precise analysis of.”

“For field research, a tape measure was the key piece of equipment. It was required by anybody setting out a field trial to ensure that the field plots were of the correct length and properly aligned – which took a great deal of time and skill to accomplish. Fast forward to today, where modern GPS systems on tractors are used to plant field plots with high precision at the touch of a button, greatly saving time and labour.” 

The popular potato variety Rooster was bred at Oak Park

Best policy

Harvesting of cereal plots in the early days was also much more labour-intensive than today.  Bagging combines were the norm; all the grain from an individual plot was put into a sack, often up to 50kg, and dropped onto the field for subsequent weighing. A sub-sample was then taken back to the laboratory for moisture and quality analysis, with all data being collected with pen and paper.

“The introduction of weigh cells on the combine eliminated the use of sacks,” explains Richie. “Once grain was weighed on the combine and a suitable sub-sample taken, the grain could be released into the tank of the combine and the next plot harvested — eliminating the manual work around handling the sacks. In both cases, the harvesting process was a dusty and noisy operation, often in very warm conditions.” 

Current plot combines are computer-controlled, with the ability to conduct basic grain quality analysis on-board, enabling a single operator to harvest hundreds of plots per day from the comfort of an air-conditioned cab.

The research focus at Oak Park has been strongly influenced by policy over the years. In the 1970s and early 1980s, following Ireland joining the EU, increasing productivity was a key focus of research and this led to significant increases in yields of the main crops during that period.

“More recently, there has been an increased focus on environmental aspects of crop production – such as nutrient loss and greenhouse gas emissions – while maintaining production,” says Richie. “Going forward, policy, particularly in the area of nutrient loss and climate change, will continue to have a significant bearing on research at Oak Park. No doubt new challenges will also emerge, spawning new avenues of research.”

The author gratefully acknowledges the time and knowledge of Eugene O’Sullivan, whose recollections helped form the basis of this article. This article was first published in TResearch, read more here