McGregor Farms’ farm manager David Fuller will be the guest speaker at Tillage Day. McGregor Farms on the Scottish borders meets tough weather conditions on heavy soils.

The farm has its own crops and also contract farms with other farmers. It has 5,000t of cold storage for potatoes and 8,000t of grain storage of its own, with a significant amount more available on other farms that it works with.

Harvested grain goes through a 150t/hour grain dryer. The operation is big and there is a lot to manage.

David Fuller has a busy job and has to run the farm efficiently and profitably. Technology plays a huge role in this.

Precision farming

David is doing a lot of precision farming. The farm is soil mapped for phosphorus, potassium and lime, which is a big saving, but also means nutrients are applied where they are needed.

When it comes to nitrogen (N), there is a Yara N sensor on the farm to decide how much nitrogen is needed and where on crops. N use efficiency is being measured on some of the crops on the farm.

Technology is being used across the farm from spraying to yield mapping and variable rate seed rates on “roly poly” fields. David says that it all helps to make the farm run more sustainably.

While McGregor Farms is a very large-scale operation, the different types of technology can work on farms of differing sizes in Ireland.

David places a big emphasis on technology on the farm and will describe this as part of his presentation at Tillage Day.

Winter wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape, spring barley, peas, beans and potatoes are all grown on the farm.

The peas, beans and potatoes are all food crops and a small amount of oilseed rape is cold pressed to make cooking oil. The peas are vining varieties and go to the frozen market.

Environmental schemes

There is a big push to environmental schemes in the UK. The sustainable farming incentive pays farmers to plant cover crops, companion crops and to leave land fallow, for example.

David says these schemes are a complication to the farming system, but in order to maintain farm income, they have to get involved.

Not all environmental measures will suit all farms either. For example, David says cover crops are hard to use in his part of the country as they will be sown quite late.

Tillage type

Most of the tillage on McGregor Farms in non-inversion. In fact, about 80% is non-inversion, but the land is still tilled deep, with a SIMBA SL to 8”. David noted that they plough for winter barley.

David will give an in-depth presentation into McGregor Farms’ system at Tillage Day and there will be time for questions and answers from the audience.

Pesticide advisers

There are 25 IASIS points available for pesticide advisers to meet continuous professional development requirements.

Get your tickets

Tillage Day takes place at the Killashee Hotel, Naas, Co Kildare, on Thursday 7 November 2024, with stands from 8.30am and the conference from 9.30am until 4.30pm.

Tickets are €49.99 and include a two-course lunch.

They can be purchased online at ifj.ie/tillageday.