Ireland’s oat farmers going to seed as world markets dictate prices

John Flahavan takes a scoop of oats from the roaster.

They are still warm, smell like breakfast, and taste delicious.

We’ve just been around John’s mill, at Kilmacthomas, in West Waterford, and it all seems so simple. Our tour followed the oats from entry to the factory to where they are now, ready for packing. The oats were cleaned, shelled, cleaned again, chopped and then roasted, after being softened by high-pressure steam. That steam came from a boiler heated by incinerating the oat by-product. A turbine, turned by the River Mahon as it flows past, powers the mill for much of the year.