Wexford merchant seeking milling wheat growers

Ballycarney Grain in Co Wexford is looking for farmers across the country to grow milling wheat.

The company told the Irish Farmers Journal it is looking at more premium crop options for growers and so will be looking for winter and spring wheat growers for the 2024/2025 season.

Premium

Edward Neale of Ballycarney Grain said there will be an initial premium of €10/t over feed wheat for the crop.

This is in order to encourage farmers to grow the milling varieties and work with the company to achieve milling specifications.

If those specifications are met there will be an additional premium for making milling grade, Neale added.

Growers should be aware that the varieties are not currently on the Irish recommended list from the Department of Agriculture.

“We currently do not have the option of choosing Irish varieties on the recommended list as there is very little research done on milling grade varieties in Ireland when there was no commercial milling market in Ireland to encourage the seed trade to conduct this research.

“For now we will look overseas to the work that has been done in the UK and Germany in this regard,” Neale commented.

“For winter milling we will be putting out a Grade E German milling wheat,” he said.

Neale also added that this variety of wheat has been very successful in Germany for milling and that it has passed in trials for use in pan flour for a very popular Irish bread-making bakery.

Practices

He explained that it will take time to understand management practices and to find varieties that will suit Irish conditions.

He said they will work closely with their growers to compare practices and to see what can be improved.

Anyone interested in growing milling wheat should contact Ballycarney Grain.