Dairygold announces Malting Barley competition winners at its annual Tillage Conference

16th January 2023

Dairygold crowned the Deasy family from Aherla, Co. Cork the overall winners of this year’s Dairygold Malting Barley competition at its annual tillage conference held in the Corrin Event Centre, Co. Cork.

Crowned the Mid Cork regional winners in the competition some weeks ago, the three generation Deasy family grow forage crops alongside a significant area of cereals all in the rotational way that sees them achieve high yields and quality on a regular basis. The judges commended the Deasy’s for their sustainable farming practices and efforts to replace the use of chemical fertiliser on their crops.

The Deasys were presented with their award at Dairygold’s tillage conference, the first one held in three years due to postponements as a result of COVID-19. The event, attended by a large number of growers and traders, heard from a number of specialist speakers such as Ciaran Collins of Teagasc, John Geraghty, South Eastern Technological University and Jim McCarthy, owner of a tillage enterprise in eastern Romania. The speakers addressed the crowd on key topics such as the importance of soil health for tillage production and farming and producing sustainably for the future, all linking back to the conference theme of ‘Feed our soils to feed our people’.

Congratulating the winners of the Malting Barley competition at the event, Dairygold Chairman Sean O’Brien said: “I would firstly like to congratulate the Deasy family on their achievement here today and also to comment on the huge effort from all four finalists during the competition. It is very important that all tillage growers get the opportunity to showcase the sustainability credentials, the standards they achieve in husbandry and the vital contribution they make to our business. Tillage growers are a very important part of Dairygold’s business and we remain committed to supporting and developing this part of the business into the future.

It is great to see a strong attendance at this event today after our three year absence and to hear from the excellent speakers. These knowledge sharing events are crucially important for the industry as they play a huge part in informing future practices for our growers.”

The other finalists in this year’s Dairygold Malting Barley competition were Frank and Mary Quinlan, Tipperary, Cyrus and Colin Buttimer, Cork and Richard Sweetnam, Cork.