The Tillage Edge

This is our final episode of 2025, and I want to wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas and New Year.  I’d also like to thank you for joining me, Michael Hennessy, every week as we explored a wide range of topics throughout the year. It’s always great to meet people at events who listen to the podcast and to hear the suggestions for future episodes. This year, Dermot Forristal, a long-time Teagasc researcher and a regular contributor to The Tillage Edge podcast retired.  An episode we recorded with him earlier in the year on cultivation systems proved extremely popular, so today we're going to revisit that conversation. Dermot takes us through over 100 years of crop establishment practices, explaining how changes in machinery have influenced - and enabled - new approaches to soil cultivation.  He also shares insights into why the plough dominated for so long, and what factors are now driving farmers to consider alternative systems. For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/ Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com 

For this week’s Tillage Edge, we look beyond the headline events and discuss the trends and challenges that have shaped tillage farming over the past year. Richie Hackett, independent agricultural consultant based in Dublin, and John Dunne, Cereals Variety Manager with Goldcrop in Cork, join the podcast to discuss the tillage year.   They talk about what growers can take from a season marked by variable weather, shifting input costs, evolving disease pressures, and ongoing changes in crop performance. For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/ Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com 

GPS technology is now commonplace on tillage farms but many do not have auto steer installed.   Francis Quigley, Farm Machinery Specialist in Teagasc, joins the podcast to talk about how he built a GPS autosteer system from scratch using the AgOpenGPS platform. Francis doesn’t describe himself as an electronics or computer expert and maintains that building a system like this is within the reach of most people. See a series of videos on AgOpenGPS here: AgOpenGPS - v6 - YouTube For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/ Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com 

For this 2nd episode in a two part series, we re-join the conservation with James McDonnell, Financial Specialist with Teagasc, to discuss how farmers can get the most from their accounts and find out if there are other mechanisms, such as partnerships which can help them maximise their take home income. For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/ Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com 

Getting value from your tax accounts isn’t just about reducing the tax you pay each year, they can also provide important insights into your business and help you spot trends over time.   For this week's Tillage Edge, the first in a two-part series, James McDonnell, Financial Specialist with Teagasc, explains how farmers can get the most from their accounts. Along with highlighting the key areas farmers should focus on, James also talks through practical ways farmers can legitimately reduce their tax bill each year. For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/ Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com