Family affair! Tipperary grower among 13 grain suppliers honoured for his top-class crops

PICTURED ABOVE: Dried Feed Wheat category winners in the Tirlán Quality Grain Awards, Newtownadam Farm, Cahir, county Tipperary. Pictured at the Awards were Tirlán Vice Chairman, Pat Murphy, Ger and Niamh Leahy operate an intensive tillage farm at Newtownadam; Dr Lisa Koep, Chief ESG Officer and the Leahy's Tirlán agronomist, Kevin Tobin. 

Tipperary grain farmer, Ger Leahy, was singled out for his dedication to the sector and was the overall winner in the Dried Feed Wheat category.

From feed beans to food grade oats, the annual Quality Grain Awards programme recognises the excellence of the top-class Irish crops delivered by Tirlán’s 1,100 growers each year.

Ger and Niamh Leahy operate an intensive tillage farm at Newtownadam, just outside Cahir in south Tipperary. Ger grows a wide range of crops including oilseed rape, winter wheat, winter barley, oats, rye and spring malting barley.

Most of his feed wheat and barley are dried and stored on the farm for sale post-harvest.

All crops are sown using a plough and one-pass system.

The farm employs one full-time worker and Ger drafts in additional labour for the busy harvest period.

Ger’s son Sean, who is currently in Sixth Year in secondary school, also helps out on the farm at weekends and during the summer months.

The Leahy’s Tirlán agronomist is Kevin Tobin.

Tirlán Chairman, John Murphy, said: “In Harvest 2022, we took in our highest ever volume of premium grains and delivered an additional €3 million in bonus payments to growers of these premium crops. We remain firmly focused on adding value to our premium grains portfolio through our investment in innovation,” said John Murphy.

Aoife Murphy, Director of Ingredients at Tirlán, said: “There has been a significant investment in cutting edge technology in our Innovation Centre, our team of Commercial, R&D, market insights and nutrition specialists, who work with our product management and marketing divisions to continuously develop our plant-based offering.”

John Kealy, Head of Grains at Tirlán, said: “We doubled our grain volumes in 2022 through our high-spec Oats Mill in Portlaoise.

“We have ambitions to continue to develop or milling capacity and extend our capability to take advantage of emerging market opportunities.”