Irish tillage growers are now the best of their breed in Europe topping the league in cereal yields, the Teagasc tillage conference in Carlow was told yesterday.
Mr Jim O'Mahoney, chief tillage adviser with Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, told the 600 farmers that Irish wheat and spring barley yields outstripped all other European yields.
"Official EU figures published by Eurostat, show that Irish wheat yields in 2001 averaged 8.4 tonnes per hectare, the highest in the Union," he said. "Spring barley yields, at 6.2 tonnes per hectare, also topped the European tables." The figures for 1999 and 2000 showed that only the Netherlands, with yields of 6.3 and 6.1 tonnes in spring barley yields in those years, came anywhere near the Irish harvest.
The Netherlands and Britain, with yields of just over eight tonnes per hectare in wheat, were the nearest rivals to Ireland in the Eurostat yields.
"That our tillage farmers can out-perform those in the renowned tillage belts of East Anglia and the Paris basin, is a testament to the skills of Irish tillage farmers and to the use of the latest technologies developed by Teagasc at Oak park," he said.
Mr O'Mahoney said there were more successes to come this year, as ideal sowing conditions last autumn had led to record winter wheat sowings. A total of 90,000 hectares of winter wheat had been sown, almost double the level in 2001 and significantly higher than the previous record of 73,000 hectares in 1992.
However, the conference was also told that Ireland's spectacular successes in the tillage area was being accomplished by fewer and fewer farmers every year.
The number of growers had declined from 50,000 in 1985 to only 15,500 this year, and the remaining growers were becoming larger and more specialised.