FEARGA Red Clover wins Sustainable Agriculture Award

FEARGA Red Clover has won the 2022 Sustainable Agriculture Award at the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena hosted at this year’s World Ploughing Championships, in Ratheniska, County Laois.

FEARGA is Ireland’s first bred Red Clover variety, developed by the Teagasc Forage Breeding Programme based at Teagasc Oak Park, Carlow. Local breeding means better adaptation to local climate and intended farming practices. Breeding of FEARGA adapted a novel approach to select more persistent genetics. The geographically closest recommended list for red clover to Ireland is the England and Wales Recommended list with FEARGA the leading Red Clover variety for yield and persistence. Better persistence means better long-term yield and less frequent reseeding.

Dr. Micheal Egan represented Teagasc at the awards ceremony held yesterday Monday, 19 September.  He said; “Red Clover as a legume can be used to further reduce our usage of artificial Nitrogen, critically without a yield penalty. This improves farm finances, but also improves environmental metrics.”

Goldcrop Ltd is responsible for the commercialisation of FEARGA including marketing, distribution, and seed production.

Dave Barry, General Manager, Grass and Forage Seed said: “The timing for FEARGA couldn’t be better, with huge growing interest in red clover because of the cost and supply of chemical Nitrogen along with the drive for improved sustainability. Red clover ticks a lot of boxes and it’s great to see Enterprise Irelands recognise Teagasc’s breeding Innovation.”

Goldcrop will display FEARGA red clover on their stand in the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena at this year Ploughing Championship. There will be a chance to meet their agronomists to learn more about FEARGA and best practice for the management of red clover.

Following the positive local trial results from FEARGA, it will now be tested in official trials in France and Germany to verify its suitability to those areas. FEARGA seed is expected to become commercially available in autumn 2023. For more information please visit the Goldcrop website