Technical Director with Seedtech & Advanced Fertilizers
Waterford, Ireland
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10 years later.
Serious development in @seedtechnology seed plant since I started working in the company 8th August 2016.
Nice to look back - like halfway up a mountain climb.
Hope the next 10 are as enjoyable and fulfilling. Grey hair caused by iPhone 17 v’s iPhone 10!!!
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Afterwards in the Croke Park hotel with our Moyle rovers clubman Peter Acheson. Absolutely brilliant.
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Great chance to get this job done. If machines get any bigger, it’s an airport sized farmyard we will need.
Coming in just nice and leafy and the grass is as soft as silk to touch so hoping it’s good digestibility.
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Plenty of aphids here in Ireland too. Thankfully seeing a huge rise in ladybirds just in time! This snap was taken today in a BYDV tolerant 2-row called ORCADE - it got no pyrethroid in autumn.
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Nice even crop of @seedtechnology KWS TAYO. Sept drilled, first spray on 20th March due to wet conditions and the fear of slugs in October. So far has had a weed spray + pgr fb pgr + fungicide. Watching for brown rust but none visible yet. Nice crop to have in 2026.
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At the @IrishSeedTrade Information meeting this morning in Clonmel. Quick summary of various DAFM schemes and why certified seed is required for each one. Proof of seed purchase is required when entering these valuable tillage support schemes. @farmersjournal
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Crops still sleeping after winter on the @seedtechnology research farm in Waterford. #StormChandra giving us a lot of rain here.
Rape growing strongly and building ‘free’ nitrogen from the soil. We will take that saving this year - thank you very much!
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Easy to find Light Leaf Spot (LLS) on rape volunteers from harvest 2025. Google maps & @seedtechnology trials plans guided me to the weaker varieties.
Next year’s rape trials only 750 m away so spread can occur. LLS no issue for AURELIA, AVIRON, DART, MURRAY or ADAPT.
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Some figures here. Complete set on our website seedtech.ie or send a DM and I’ll send document.
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Nothing like it! All-Ireland hurling final. Tipp v’Cork. The colour, the craic and the roar!
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Turn up the volume! @seedtechnology wildflower seed production fields coming into full colour soon. And the bees are loving it!
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Shiny, happy BELFRY making grain 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶.
My favourite time of year to walk winter barley just as the heads turn down.
Does a mind good after a busy season. @farmersjournal @SyngentaUK @TeagascCrops
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Representing @IrishSeedTrade at the launch of the @teagasc National Centre for Brewing and Distilling being officially launched by Minister for Agriculture @martinheydonfg at Oak Park this morning. Important to have top class facilities like NCBD to support our tillage sector.
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Where we @seedtechnology have grown acres of marigolds for wildflower seed production, we did not notice a marked drop in BYDV in close by cereal fields. The marigolds do look magnificent in full flower.
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What a difference the weather makes.
Silage coming in as green as grass!! And with @LallemandUK_IRL additive, should be a mighty feed! Got a good knock down on docks also.
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@KWSUKLtd TAYO hybrid rye doing its thing. Always impressed with the head. Compared to wheat, no worried about disease at all. This crop got 3 PGR and 1 fungicide. Will get 1 or possibly 2 more depending on if the grower sees brown rust. @seedtechnology
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@KWSUKLtd TAYO hybrid rye powering on since the spring equinox. Drilled End Oct (not planned, but there you go!), got spring herbicide and 1st PGR on 18 March. To get 2 more PGR and fungicide. @seedtechnology.
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Some visual differences after our champion ploughman Denis Dunne got some practice at the @seedtechnology demo site. Last year’s tramlines visible across the plots. But also noticeable tilth differences between pea, bean and cereal stubble.
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KWS TAYO rye throwing out serious tillers. Rye used on this farm to extend rotation to give 4 cereal crops between rape crops (osr, ww, rye, sb, hybrid barley, osr). Rye also used to get drilling in September and better timing of autumn wheat and barley drilling.
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Champion winter wheat liking this back end. Showing some vigorous tillering. Nice clean crop base but April/May rain is our main driver of septoria in Ireland. Long ways to go but a good start.
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Last bit of crop walking in 2024 and little or no issues to report. Feb will be a busy month in rye and barley. Wheat and rape will be left alone until March. LG AURELIA rape with GAI score of 3 - offering nice fertiliser savings.
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Baiting @KWSUKLtd seed rye crops for slugs. Have to call in the big guns @FlahavansIRL wonderful porridge to entice slugs away from rye!! Absolutely fantastic soil conditions since drilling 6 days ago with great shoot and root growth. @SiobhWalsh1 @seedtechnology.
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Team work makes the dream work or something like that.
Busy Friday on @seedtechnology trials grounds and on farms who contract grow our seed crops. Drilling winter wheat & oat trials, drilling rye seed crops and picking stones for exercise! Fantastic weather @CarlowWeather
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@Farmer_Mooo
SY ARMADILLO seed rate 1st Week October is 200 seeds/m2 (big bag = 5 ha) and seed depth of 2-3 cm.
Am based in Ireland but if you look up @SyngentaUK website, they have seed calculations for UK and detailed information on SY ARMADILLO.
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Anyone seeing ergot in grasses this autumn? Rotationally grazed pasture, not cut or topped. Can find ergots in perennial ryegrass heads quite easy. Seems to be a significant issue in UK winter and spring wheat crops also this year, at least the ones on my twitter feed.
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Another timely & sensible talk from Veronica Nyhan @TeagascCrops on soil structure and how to assess soils for damage. Very apt after the wet year we’ve just had. Links here to simple online tools to help assess soil damage. @SiobhWalsh1
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Drill a BYDV tolerant barley like KWS JOYAU or ORCADE and use latitude if drilling winter barley early.
Timely and excellent info from Dr Richie Hackett at Crops Forum this afternoon. See his full presentation on wwwteagasc.ie
on take-all & BYDV. @TeagascCrops
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Always exciting to see different varieties in field trials side by side. Only way you can really tell what’s what. @seedtechnology oat variety HUSKY with its usual nice bright sample in our seed shed and standing (left of lodged plot) out in our trials. Most popular oat in 🇮🇪
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@SyngentaUK SY AMITY spring barley doing the business in plots and on farm. Huge grain size helping the tonnes per acre. A zero GN barley that is suitable for brewing 🍺 and distilling 🥃.
Some dry days to get our @seedtechnology plots cut. Busy days and nights - FARM SAFE.
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Looks to be good potential in Irish spring beans this year. This LYNX crop was drilled 19 April and has a decent number of pods per plant. I’m averaging 12-15 pods per plant easy enough but ranging from 8 to 25.
Won’t be cutting until October I think.
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Business end of the season - walking spring barley malting crops. @LGSeedsUK LG MERMAID, a zero gn malting barley (makes excellent 🍺 & 🥃), recently added to the Irish Rec List. 1300 heads per m2 so looking promising. Just coming into peak grain fill so 🤞.
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Last bit of nectar gathered and then back to the hive for a pint (of mead) with the lads!
If @carlsberg did Fridays for bumblebees!
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Simple idea but puts the farmers front and centre. Not sure though does the back of the cereal box get read as much with phones!
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High 20’s to mid 30’s in Sommieres, southern France since last week Alan. Looks settled for this week too. Must admit the sunflowers are not flowering here as strongly as other years.
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Brilliant day out at the @feilegaa finals in sunny Roscommon today. @moyleroversclub did us proud and the lads have memories for life.
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Aphid numbers about to explode in these spring beans. Waiting patiently for the red army 🐞🐞🐞🐞to come along.
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Spring beans starting to flower. Drilled late due to wet spring but nicely motoring now. Yesterdays rain and a bit of heat will really help. Field buzzing 🐝 this morning. Clean canopy with first fungicide applied 5 days ago (still on leaves). Late crops need every help.
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Bit early to see bean weevil damage on roots but crop was drilled in March. Now flowering. Got a well timed spray so hope this limits the damage.
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Always easy to pick out KWS JOYAU winter barley from its nice, even heads and short, clean straw. One of the last ones to succumb to ramularia also. @seedtechnology.
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First pods beginning to form on LYNX spring beans at the @seedtechnology trial site in Southern Ireland. Mid March drilled, probably the only few ‘dry’ days we got in March.
Fingers crossed we get warmer weather soon. Very low disease pressure so far.
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‘Rusty’ rye plots in @seedtechnology today.
As clean a crop as hybrid rye is, it can get get brown rust.
These are unsprayed plots in what I call a ‘rusty’ year. Have yellow rust in development wheats and crown rust in oats on the same site, unsprayed.
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