On Friday, March 22nd last at the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin, the cream of Ireland’s agricultural sector were recognised and celebrated at the Zurich Farmer of the Year Awards. Noel Delany was crowned Tillage Farmer of the Year and Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with the Tipperary man to find out the secrets of his success.
Now in its second year, the Zurich Farmer of the Year Awards seeks to reward excellence in all areas of farming in the Republic of Ireland. 10 awards were handed out on the night and Fethard’s Noel Delany ticked all the boxes in the Tillage Farmer category.
Noel got the nod from the panel of experts following a site visit to his 500 acre operation. So why did the judges choose him? “Our attention to detail was second to none,” he answered.
“We had everything broken down to a tee, our accounts and costings per tonne. The secret to success is attention to detail, you have to know exactly what everything costs and that is key to a maximum yield.”
It’s not the first time that the Tillage Farmer of the Year trophy has taken pride of place on the Delany family home’s mantlepiece. Back in 1984, Noel scooped the prize as a 24-year-old.
The Delany family has a long tradition of involvement in cereal production. Noel was instrumental in setting up the Cahir Cereal Discussion group in 1977 following studies in Warwick University in the U.K.
Married to Claire they have two children Gavin, who recently completed year three of a Agri Business course in CIT, and Kora. Farming his own land the Delany family grow all winter crops – wheat, oats, and barley are dried and stored on the farm and are sold locally to a pig producer and the oats to Flahavan’s for porridge.
“My father John Heffernan Delany started growing crops in 1953,” Noel revealed, “ we specialise in three-way rotation – wheat, barley and oats.”
Bach in 2010, Noel was elected to serve a four year term as Chairman of the IFA’s National Grain Committee. The National Grain Committee represents Ireland’s 13,000 cereal growers and its members are elected by IFA’s 25 county executives.
The most important issues include feed grains, peas, beans and oilseed prices and malting barley premium. The Committee was instrumental in developing price risk management tools for malting barley growers to minimise grain price volatility.
During his tenure, Noel did his best to improve the lot of Ireland’s tillage farmers and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“It was a super experience, I represented Ireland on the the European Farmers Co-Op in Brussels and it was educational to say the least. We were able to exchange ideas with our European counterparts and it was interesting to note that farmers in Austria and Finland, for example, experience the same problems as farmers here in Ireland.
“The challenges for tillage production is viability. Input costs continue to rise and we’re not getting €140 a tonne at the minute. €130 is the outlook for barley this Autumn. That is unsustainable at production costs of €100 per tonne.”
Over 300,000 hectares of the best land in Ireland is engaged in the annual production of crops for harvest. What is the way forward for tillage farming in Ireland?
“Going direct, farm to trough,” answered Noel who continues his hands-on role in the IFA as chairman of the local branch. “Looking to the future and the area of sustainability of the whole crop area, the focus has to be on good crop management.
“The main goal is to produce quality Irish feed on farms selling direct to local livestock farmers. We have to work together with farmers into the future.
“Primary producers are continuously being taken advantage off. If farmers as primary food producers go out of production then there will be no industry, no added value, increased unemployment and a higher dependency on imported food.
“As safe food producers and custodians of the environment – farmers are entitled to earn a good living, get a return on their investment and be able to pass on the land base and knowledge to the next generation” he concluded.
Noel Delany
Parson’s Hill House
Fethard
Co Tipperary
Tel: 087-2476697
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 7, August 2015
