Tillage growers look for some alternatives

TILLAGE growers, who have lost a €70 million a year beet crop with the impending closure of Mallow Sugar Factory, are looking for a profitable replacement or alternative enterprises, the Teagasc national tillage conference was told in Carlow yesterday.

But a Teagasc tillage specialist, Michael Hennessy, warned that if all of the planned sugar beet acreage is sown in spring cereal then this extra production will flood the market. To prevent this happening Teagasc has outlined a number of alternative options for growers.

“Much of the land coming out of sugar beet should be planted to crops other than spring barley, such as maize, fodder beet, oilseed rape, peas/beans and oats”, he said.