Oak Park, also known as Painestown Estate, dates back to the 1600s and was owned by the Cooke family until 1785. The family then sold it to the Bruens and at that time the estate extended to more than 600ha.
There are a number of historic and architectural features within Oak Park, including Oak Park House, the grand arch, the metal bridge, the ice house, the man-made lake, the coach house, the temple, the dairy and the farmyard, as well as the ruins of a church and graveyard, where some of the Cooke family is buried.
Following the death of the late Henry Bruen in 1954, Oak Park estate was sold to an English farming syndicate in 1957. Two years later it was taken over by the Irish Land Commission, which allocated some of the land to small farmers and the Carlow golf and rugby clubs. Teagasc, then called An Foras Talúntais, was given 344ha, including Oak Park, to be used as a tillage crops research centre.
Teagasc headquarters was moved to Oak Park in 2004. In 2006, Teagasc gave roughly 50ha of forestry parkland to the people of Carlow, which was developed into a recreational, community and amenity facility.
Fatima Latif Azam and Sarah Moore talk through potato breeds that have come from Oak Park \ Claire Nash .
Sixty years of change
Oak Park has seen many changes over the past 60 years, including big changes to Ireland’s cropping area and crop yields.
Cropping in 1965 had a combined total area of 474,000ha where spring crops dominated – this included barley (187,800ha), oats (115,100ha), wheat (73,700ha), potatoes (70,500ha) and beet (26,500ha).
Yields were much lower, with spring barley yields typically less than 1t/ha compared to today’s standards of over 7.5t/ha.
While some herbicides were available for cereals, weed control was far more limited than it is today.
Chemical control of diseases had yet to be introduced on a wide scale and machinery was small by today’s standards, making crop production labour-intensive.
Research at Oak Park in the 1970s and 1980s helped develop production systems that took full advantage of new technologies to improve yields and make production systems less labour-intensive.
Today, there is a total of 287,000ha of land in crops consisting of barley (186,300ha), wheat (55,800ha), oats (27,200ha), beet (9,500ha) and potatoes (8,200ha). The use of new technology has optimised the agronomy of established crops such as wheat and barley, and considerable effort has been devoted to assessing the potential of new crops such as forage maize.
Visitors to Oak Park could take a look back a the history of the farm.
‘There was no such thing as de-stoning in the 1950s’
Denis Griffin, a potato breeder in Oak Park, told the Irish Farmers Journalthat back in the 1950s and 1960s there was no such thing as de-stoning.
Land was tilled with a grubber or a harrow and planted directly with planters, which were sometimes just modified Ferguson drilled ploughs with pipes.
“In some cases, the semi-automatic planters came a little bit later. In the early 1960s there were early automatic planters digging, whereas in the 1950s it was largely done with spinners, which spun out the potatoes. In more recent times, one-row and two row-chain elevator diggers were used, and potatoes were picked by hand directly into trailers or boxes for taking off the field,” he said.
Griffin said that there was a revolution in terms of cultivation in the 1980s. “We saw a huge increase in yields in Ireland from that time on, where the average potato yield was 25t/ha and it has risen to 45t/ha now. A lot of changes are due to cultivation, but also the introduction of new varieties like Rooster, which were 20% higher yielding than the other ones, such as Kerrs Pink and Record.
“Destoning made a big difference in terms of quality, as there was no stone damage to potatoes, better tilt for potatoes to grow, better nutrition, and we were moving away from the era of hand picking and into trailed harvesters.
“Teagasc has been breeding potatoes since 1962 and work with IPM potato group. The variety people would know best is the Rooster, although we have released 63 varieties in over 15 countries. A lot of varieties are bred for disease resistance, nematode resistance, lower fertiliser use, input and drought resistance. They use a lot of DNA technology now when breeding, to breed varieties which have increased disease and pest resistance,” he added.
Disease trends across
six decades in Ireland
Research officer at Oak Park Stephen Kildea said disease-wise the main change is that we have moved from a spring-sowing crop to winter sowing, which changes the dynamics of the different diseases.
“Sixty years ago, the common diseases in wheat would have been powdery mildew, rust and root diseases, although now we’re looking into winter crops, which are exposed to mild and wet conditions in autumn, and are exposed to disease such as septoria tritici. In barley, powdery mildew and net blotch were the main diseases and now rhynchosporium and net blotch are the greatest threats. In the last 30 years, we have seen ramularia, which has been a significant problem in the past five years, which 60 years ago didn’t exist. These dynamics change the way we go about controlling the diseases. Sixty years ago, we probably only had one or two pesticides and now the fungicides are our main means of control,” he noted.
“In the next 60 years, we will focus on varieties, not just the disease itself. We look at factors such as how we grow the crops, what crops we grow, when we sow them, how we treat them with nutrition, how we put them into the ground and as we change, the diseases will change in response. Every year from a disease perspective we make about 4,000-5,000 plots all around Oak Park that look at all the methods of disease control, such as varieties, crop agronomy and fungicide protection,” Kildea added.
Declan Lacey from Kilkenny and Seamus Woods from Carlow have a look over an older seed drill . \ Claire Nash
Agricultural mechanisation
Machinery has changed drastically over the past 60 years, which has reduced physical labour and the time it takes to get through jobs. Tractors and implements have gotten a lot bigger and the machine capacity means that work can be carried out at a faster work rate, although the weight of the machines has caused more soil compaction than seen previously.
Digital technology such as GPS has led to more precision at the touch of a button, better accuracy of work and offers valuable information to the operator. Current plot combines are computer-controlled, with the ability to conduct basic grain quality analysis on-board, enabling a single operator to harvest hundreds of plots per day from the comfort of an air-conditioned cab.
Auto-steer section control has assisted in positioning technology and enabled work to be carried out without daylight hours. The cab of the machine optimises comfort for the operator and safety standards have improved leading to less risks of accidents occurring, and machinery must be in road-worthy condition and meet standards set out by the Road Safety Authority. Nowadays, machinery is more expensive than ever before.
Teagasc Oak Park has seen many changes over the past 60 years. \ Claire Nash
Oak Park, also known as Painestown Estate, dates back to the 1600s and was owned by the Cooke family until 1785. The family then sold it to the Bruens and at that time the estate extended to more than 600ha.
There are a number of historic and architectural features within Oak Park, including Oak Park House, the grand arch, the metal bridge, the ice house, the man-made lake, the coach house, the temple, the dairy and the farmyard, as well as the ruins of a church and graveyard, where some of the Cooke family is buried.
Following the death of the late Henry Bruen in 1954, Oak Park estate was sold to an English farming syndicate in 1957. Two years later it was taken over by the Irish Land Commission, which allocated some of the land to small farmers and the Carlow golf and rugby clubs. Teagasc, then called An Foras Talúntais, was given 344ha, including Oak Park, to be used as a tillage crops research centre.
Teagasc headquarters was moved to Oak Park in 2004. In 2006, Teagasc gave roughly 50ha of forestry parkland to the people of Carlow, which was developed into a recreational, community and amenity facility.
Fatima Latif Azam and Sarah Moore talk through potato breeds that have come from Oak Park \ Claire Nash .
Sixty years of change
Oak Park has seen many changes over the past 60 years, including big changes to Ireland’s cropping area and crop yields.
Cropping in 1965 had a combined total area of 474,000ha where spring crops dominated – this included barley (187,800ha), oats (115,100ha), wheat (73,700ha), potatoes (70,500ha) and beet (26,500ha).
Yields were much lower, with spring barley yields typically less than 1t/ha compared to today’s standards of over 7.5t/ha.
While some herbicides were available for cereals, weed control was far more limited than it is today.
Chemical control of diseases had yet to be introduced on a wide scale and machinery was small by today’s standards, making crop production labour-intensive.
Research at Oak Park in the 1970s and 1980s helped develop production systems that took full advantage of new technologies to improve yields and make production systems less labour-intensive.
Today, there is a total of 287,000ha of land in crops consisting of barley (186,300ha), wheat (55,800ha), oats (27,200ha), beet (9,500ha) and potatoes (8,200ha). The use of new technology has optimised the agronomy of established crops such as wheat and barley, and considerable effort has been devoted to assessing the potential of new crops such as forage maize.
Visitors to Oak Park could take a look back a the history of the farm.
‘There was no such thing as de-stoning in the 1950s’
Denis Griffin, a potato breeder in Oak Park, told the Irish Farmers Journalthat back in the 1950s and 1960s there was no such thing as de-stoning.
Land was tilled with a grubber or a harrow and planted directly with planters, which were sometimes just modified Ferguson drilled ploughs with pipes.
“In some cases, the semi-automatic planters came a little bit later. In the early 1960s there were early automatic planters digging, whereas in the 1950s it was largely done with spinners, which spun out the potatoes. In more recent times, one-row and two row-chain elevator diggers were used, and potatoes were picked by hand directly into trailers or boxes for taking off the field,” he said.
Griffin said that there was a revolution in terms of cultivation in the 1980s. “We saw a huge increase in yields in Ireland from that time on, where the average potato yield was 25t/ha and it has risen to 45t/ha now. A lot of changes are due to cultivation, but also the introduction of new varieties like Rooster, which were 20% higher yielding than the other ones, such as Kerrs Pink and Record.
“Destoning made a big difference in terms of quality, as there was no stone damage to potatoes, better tilt for potatoes to grow, better nutrition, and we were moving away from the era of hand picking and into trailed harvesters.
“Teagasc has been breeding potatoes since 1962 and work with IPM potato group. The variety people would know best is the Rooster, although we have released 63 varieties in over 15 countries. A lot of varieties are bred for disease resistance, nematode resistance, lower fertiliser use, input and drought resistance. They use a lot of DNA technology now when breeding, to breed varieties which have increased disease and pest resistance,” he added.
Disease trends across
six decades in Ireland
Research officer at Oak Park Stephen Kildea said disease-wise the main change is that we have moved from a spring-sowing crop to winter sowing, which changes the dynamics of the different diseases.
“Sixty years ago, the common diseases in wheat would have been powdery mildew, rust and root diseases, although now we’re looking into winter crops, which are exposed to mild and wet conditions in autumn, and are exposed to disease such as septoria tritici. In barley, powdery mildew and net blotch were the main diseases and now rhynchosporium and net blotch are the greatest threats. In the last 30 years, we have seen ramularia, which has been a significant problem in the past five years, which 60 years ago didn’t exist. These dynamics change the way we go about controlling the diseases. Sixty years ago, we probably only had one or two pesticides and now the fungicides are our main means of control,” he noted.
“In the next 60 years, we will focus on varieties, not just the disease itself. We look at factors such as how we grow the crops, what crops we grow, when we sow them, how we treat them with nutrition, how we put them into the ground and as we change, the diseases will change in response. Every year from a disease perspective we make about 4,000-5,000 plots all around Oak Park that look at all the methods of disease control, such as varieties, crop agronomy and fungicide protection,” Kildea added.
Declan Lacey from Kilkenny and Seamus Woods from Carlow have a look over an older seed drill . \ Claire Nash
Agricultural mechanisation
Machinery has changed drastically over the past 60 years, which has reduced physical labour and the time it takes to get through jobs. Tractors and implements have gotten a lot bigger and the machine capacity means that work can be carried out at a faster work rate, although the weight of the machines has caused more soil compaction than seen previously.
Digital technology such as GPS has led to more precision at the touch of a button, better accuracy of work and offers valuable information to the operator. Current plot combines are computer-controlled, with the ability to conduct basic grain quality analysis on-board, enabling a single operator to harvest hundreds of plots per day from the comfort of an air-conditioned cab.
Auto-steer section control has assisted in positioning technology and enabled work to be carried out without daylight hours. The cab of the machine optimises comfort for the operator and safety standards have improved leading to less risks of accidents occurring, and machinery must be in road-worthy condition and meet standards set out by the Road Safety Authority. Nowadays, machinery is more expensive than ever before.
Teagasc Oak Park has seen many changes over the past 60 years. \ Claire Nash
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