Co. Down winner for UFU winter wheat competition

1st place winners, John and David Matthews holding daughter Sarah from the UFU Ards group.

The Ulster Farmers’ Union along with competition sponsors Origin NI & BASF, have crowned John and David Matthews from the UFU Ards group first place in the winter wheat category this year.

A very close second place was awarded to Jim Fulton of the UFU North West Derry group, with Sam Wadsworth of the UFU South Antrim group taking a respectable third place.

The county winners were:

• Antrim – Samuel Fry, West Antrim
• Armagh – Victor Hunniford, North East Armagh
• Down – Neil Patterson, Donard
• Londonderry – Jim Fulton, North West Derry
• Tyrone – Christopher Bell, East Tyrone

Northern Ireland final judge Paul Cottney said, “Congratulations to John and David Matthews from the UFU Ards group and to all those who entered the competition. All entries were of very high standard demonstrating the expertise and pride which goes into the growing of these crops. The winning entry had a very impressive number of tillers with high grain numbers per ear and grain fill along with some green leaf area remaining to further boost yield potential. The wheat crops this year are all very uniform with very high yield potential. Ideal early conditions in spring allowed for ideal management to optimise tiller numbers and control disease. However, the impact of unsettled weather at flowing time was evident in some crops as this impacted grain numbers per head and grain fill.”

UFU deputy president Glenn Cuddy said, “I would like to sincerely thank our sponsors, Clarendon Agri-Care and Bayer, for their continued enthusiastic support and promotion of our cereal competitions. I also want to extend my gratitude to the competition judges, our group managers who coordinate the local events and the many UFU members who took part in this year’s winter wheat competition.”

The awards for the winter barley, oats, winter wheat and spring barley cereal competition categories, will be officially presented at the 2025 UFU and sponsors cereals competition awards and lunch planned for later this year.