Wexford family wins Tirlán grower of the year
(Left to right) Tirlán CEO Seán Molloy, Chairperson John Murphy, Margaret Murphy, her father award-winning grower Art Murphy, Tirlán’s Chief Agribusiness Officer Ailish Byrne and Head of Grains John Kealy at the awards ceremony at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin last week. Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke
A Wexford family has been crowned Tirlán Grain Growers of the Year.
Art and Ann Murphy, who farm a 900-acre farm in Ferns, Wexford, also took home an award for their Winter (Cassia) Feed Barley.
The family growers were praised for their exceptional attention to detail in producing and supplying Tirlán with top-quality grains.
The Murphys have been farming for the past 50 years. Aside from the winter barley, they grow winter equine oats, spring malting barley, oil seed rape and cover cropping using a plough-based system.
Two Cork-based growers were also among the winners at the Tirlán awards ceremony. Kieran and Denis Fitzgerald are based in Lisnagar House, Fermoy taking the Malting Barley award and Shane O’Connell from Boulta, Ballynoe taking home the Green Field Barley award.
Mr O’Connell farms with his wife and two sons. Tillage being their main enterprise the O’Connell’s also operate a store to beef livestock system on site.
The crop rotation on the farm mainly consists of winter and spring barley, oats and grass as a break crop, a proportion of which is made up of multi-species swards as part of their grazing platform.
The Fitzgeralds, a father and son duo, farm primarily tillage but also has a small cattle enterprise providing manure for the crops growing on the farm.
The Fitzgeralds' crop rotation consists of winter and spring barley with a cover crop sown each year after their winter barley to help improve their soil structure. Sowing is conducted by a local contractor, and the Fitzgeralds carry out the rest of the farm work themselves.
Tirlán chairman John Murphy commended the award winners and said Tirlán remains the largest buyer and user of native Irish grains.
“It is wonderful to get the opportunity to celebrate and recognise the ‘cream of the crop’ among our dedicated and passionate growers,” he said.
Art Murphy said: “We've been farming for generations on our family farm in Wexford and suppliers of grain to Tirlán for decades.
"We place strong emphasis on nurturing our crops, soil health and pay close attention to plant nutrition to maximise the crop's potential.”
Mr Murphy, one of the founding members of the Irish Grain Growers Association (IGGA), and is still an active member, puts emphasis on keeping a close eye to plant nutrition and establishment to maximise the crop’s potential.
Organic matter in the form of pig and cattle manures plays an important role in maintaining healthy soil for crops to grow.
“2024 was an extremely challenging spring for us, and we only had an eight-day window in which to sow 900 acres. It was a challenge, but we got it done. We couldn’t have done it without the wonderful support of our agronomist Fintan Treacy and Philip Deacon, who works with us,” he said.
This winning crop of Cassia barley had an average specific weight of 67.9 kph at 17.2% moisture across almost 400t, with screenings of 1.9% and a protein content of 10.1%.
