Tipperary farmer is named as Best Organic Oats grower in annual Flahavan's awards

The winner in the Flahavan's Organic Oats category Evan Delaney, Red City, Fethard, is presented with his award by Johnny Flahavan

placeholder image — The winner in the Flahavan's Organic Oats category Evan Delaney, Red City, Fethard, is presented with his award by Johnny Flahavan

Flahavan’s are delighted to announce the winners of their Oat Grower of the Year Award 2023.

The awards were split into two categories - Conventional Oat Growers and Organic Oat Growers and competition was extremely strong in both categories, despite the difficult growing conditions experienced this year.

Agronomist and cereals specialist Jim O’Mahony, who acted as independent judge for the competition said: “All shortlisted growers and winners in both categories produced top quality oats grown with due consideration for the environment”.

The overall winner in the Organic Oats category was Evan Delaney, who has been farming tillage crops plus a small area for livestock around the house with his family at Red City, Fethard.

He has an organic feed business in conjunction with his organic cropping programme.

Evan is very knowledgeable on organic growing technology and is keen to explore the market potential for organic crops. He is very aware of Department of Agriculture requirements and schemes as well as the importance of maintaining and improving environmental assets.

Evan is noted as a leader in the organic movement and is a member of the Limerick-Tipp organic group.

His farm is used by both Irish Organic Association and Teagasc for knowledge transfer.

Evan said that he was “happy to supply Flahavan’s with quality organic oats".

Eoghan O’Sullivan from Roseville, Donohill, Tipperary Town was named runner-up in the Organic Oats category.

Eoghan who is relatively new in tillage was praised by the judge for his simple system that produces quality oats which are delivered to Flahavan’s directly from the harvester.

Eoghan is also very conscious of his environmental responsibilities.

The winners in the Conventional Oats category were the Keane family of Cappoquin Estate, where Charles Keane was one of the first Irish growers to introduce tramlines to Irish cereal growing in the 1980s.

Padraig Connery from Villierstown, Cappoquin, was runner up in the Conventional Oats category.