Each month, we put the spotlight on a Tirlán employee and for our January newsletter, we’re talking to James Hickey

Tirlán’s agronomy team play a vital role in providing technical advice to tillage farmers, looking after a host of Tirlán tillage customer accounts and the management of a growing number of premium crops like malting barley, gluten-free oats, food grade oats and premium seeds, which add value to family farm incomes and to Tirlán’s bottom line.

James Hickey is an agronomist in Kilkenny, alongside his technical lead role for the tillage team. While it might be a quieter time on tillage farms, for the agronomy team this time of year is spent getting critical fertiliser and agricultural chemical plans together and planning for a busy year ahead.

“I’m A UCD Agricultural Graduate where I specialised in animal and crop production and started with Tirlán in 2011. It’s a fantastic place to work and it’s great to be out and about in the open. 2022 was a particularly good year – one of the best on record I’d say. Grain price was good, crop yields were good too. It made for a very happy working environment.

“The toughest part of the job can be dealing with the weather. You have to cover every inch of ground in your area from March to June. You have to see every field. It can make for very long evenings.”

The varied role sees James working hand in hand with tillage farmers, providing them with technical advice on fertilisers, seed and crop protection plans (chemicals) and looking after commercial transactions on fertiliser, seed, agri chemicals and trading grain.

When the day is over James, who lives in Galmoy, tends to the family farm. “I’ve a suckler herd and a small bit of tillage. I love working the land and it’s a great way to unwind and while my playing days are over, I also enjoy underage training with the kids with the local club.”

The change in structure to a 100% farmer-owned Co-op has been very positively received in the farming community, as has the name and identity change, James says. “Tirlán has done what it promised to do as a farmer-owned cooperative. It has delivered leading prices for grain and for milk. We are on the frontline dealing with farmers every day. There hasn’t been any negativity whatsoever. Long may it continue.”