NIFGA hosts successful apple conference

Speakers and UFU representatives at the recent Northern Ireland Fruit Growers Conference. Left to right: David Johnston fruit grower and NIFGA chairman, David Camp (Association of Labour Providers), David Brown (UFU deputy president), Kieran Lavelle (senior horticultural technologist, CAFRE), Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots, Wesley Aston (UFU chief executive) and Dr Sean Mac Ant Saoir, (AFBI)

Producing consistently high yielding crops of quality Bramley apples, year after year, is an ongoing challenge for growers, requiring close attention to soil nutrition, disease control, agronomy and fruit storage.

Aspects of orchard nutrition, which are reliant upon routine analysis of soil, leaf and fruitlets were addressed by Chloe Kyle from Yara UK Ltd, while Dr Sean Mac Ant Saoir gave an overview of the research carried out at AFBI Loughgall. Sean’s talk summarised work which he has carried out on apples and pears including disease control, orchard planting systems, growth regulation and fruit storage.

Kieran Lavelle, Senior Horticultural Technologist with CAFRE, presented the results of an agricultural European Innovation Partnership Focus Group which looked at ‘Protecting fruit production from frost damage’.

Kieran was one of 20 experts from different countries, including growers, researchers and advisers in the focus group which started work on how to protect fruit from frost damage. Kieran’s presentation was particularly interesting to growers as severe frosts in Spring 2019 had a devastating effect on apple yields on many farms.

As apple growers are very reliant upon seasonal workers to assist with harvest, it is imperative that they ensure that procedures are in place to protect farm businesses from the risks of modern slavery, hidden labour exploitation and infiltration by human traffickers

Subsequently David Camp, from the UK Association of Labour Providers gave a presentation on current labour supply challenges, the impact of Brexit, collaborating to secure recruitment needs and good practices in sourcing and retaining farm labour.

After the conference, the highly contested Orchard Awards were presented by the new Agriculture Minister Mr Edwin Poots.