1. Niall Montgomery with his nephews Kit and Rory Montgomery from UFU Donard group.
The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) along with competition sponsors Clarendon Agri Care & Bayer, have crowned Alan and Niall Montgomery from the UFU Donard group first place in the winter wheat category this year.
A very close second place was awarded to Jonny Kelly of the UFU North West Derry group, with David Matthews from the UFU Ards group taking a respectable third place.
The county winners were:
- Antrim – Jonathan Brown, North Antrim group
- Armagh – Simon Best, Armagh Down group
- Down – Alan and Niall Montgomery, Donard group
- Londonderry – Jonny Kelly, North West Derry group
- Tyrone – Mark and Paul Russell, North Tyrone group
Northern Ireland final judge Paul Cottney from AFBI said, “The yield potential of the winter wheat crops is impressive given the difficulties the 2023 has presented. In addition, the crops are much earlier to ripen than expected. All of the winter wheat crops judged have a very high yield potential, with the winner gaining points due to the plant density, grain fill and still having considerable green leaf area remaining to prolong grain fill. There was some variation in weed control due to late emerging weeds. The recent conditions has resulted in lodging beginning to occur, particularly where there have been fertiliser overlaps and the differences in plant height due to variety is evident in the amount of lodging currently exhibited between these fields. All of the fields judged demonstrate the pride and careful consideration each grower implements to produce these excellent crops of wheat. Well done to all growers who entered this competition.”
UFU deputy president John McLenaghan said, “I would like to thank our sponsors Clarendon Agri Care & Bayer who continue to enthusiastically support and promote our cereal competitions, the competition judges, our group managers who co-ordinate the local competitions, and the many UFU members who entered 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 2023 UFU and sponsors cereals competition awards and lunch planned for later this year.
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1. Niall Montgomery with his nephews Kit and Rory Montgomery from UFU Donard group.
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2. Jonny Kelly with son Jamie Kelly pictured with group manager David Oliver from UFU North West Derry group.
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3. David and John Matthews pictured with family members from UFU Ards group.
