Teagasc is facilitating Enable Conservation Tillage Project Crop Walks on various farms across the country to encourage the adoption of conservation agriculture practices on Irish tillage farms. The intention is also to provide growers with the knowledge, skills, and capacity to achieve effective grass weed control. Attendees will look at grass weeds in various establishment systems as well as best practices for getting the best results.
The next Enable Conservation Tillage Project Crop Walk will be at the farm of Bill Shanahan on 14 June, 2022 at 9.30am. The farm is at Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford. Eircode: X42 R273.
This will be followed by another one at Adam Goodwin’s farm at 15 June, 2022 at 9:30am. The farm is at Castledermot, Co. Kildare. Eircode: R14 FX59.
In many regions of the world, Conservation Agriculture (CA) techniques incorporating less intensive soil cultivation have been adopted to reduce production costs and improve sustainability. Irish farmers have been reluctant to adopt CA techniques because of concerns about grass weeds and crop establishment in a mild, wetter climate.
Against this background, Teagasc set up the Enable Conservation Tillage project with the aim to reduce barriers to farmers who wish to adopt non-plough tillage. The structure of the project maximises farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange thus increasing the potential for practice adoption.
It is a co-innovation model funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as well as a European Innovation Partnerships initiative.