Tipperary farmer among regional winners in Dairygold malting barley competition

Tipperary tillage farmer Oliver Keating from Cullenagh, Burncourt, has been named one of four regional winners of the 2025 Dairygold Malting Barley Competition, an award that recognises excellence in crop quality, sustainability and farm management.

The competition forms part of Dairygold Agri Business’s wider programme supporting best practice and innovation within the tillage sector.

The four regional winners will now compete for the overall title, which will be announced at the Dairygold Annual Tillage Conference on Friday, 9 January 2026, at the Corrin Event Centre in Fermoy.

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The Annual Tillage Conference is a key event in the tillage calendar, featuring technical presentations, expert speakers, trade stands and discussion on challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

Oliver farms a mixed enterprise near Burncourt with his wife Margaret and their three daughters, combining tillage with an autumn-calving suckler herd.

A strong advocate of regenerative farming, he participates in ACRES and EIP schemes and places a clear emphasis on building soil health through the use of organic compounds.

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His tillage rotation includes winter barley, spring malting barley and oats, with soil testing guiding nutrition programmes developed alongside Dairygold agronomist Tim McCarthy.

Precision farming technologies, including GPS and auto-steer, play a central role in the system, and his malting barley deliveries have consistently recorded high KPH.