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At the trade show. On the right, the Custom Compost stand with Michael Flanaghan in the centre, on the left Leonne McVeigh (JF McKenna) and Martin McCourt (McDon Mushroom Casing) enjoy a chat.
Picking to optimise profit Colm Feely, regional manager of Monaghan Mushrooms, was playing a home game. His lecture covered the value of good picking. In Feely’s view this means clearly defining the lines of responsibility from the outset. Monaghan is making concerted efforts to standardise these responsibilities on all of its farms. The growing technique is of course important too, but at Monaghan all the pickers follow a 12-week training course according to FETAC (Further Education and Training Awards Council) guidelines where they learn how to pick selectively, with graze picking and one touch handling treated as very important elements. This method is only possible if the pins emerge well spread over the beds and staggered over the picking days, which according to Feely supports the principle that the only route to success is through well-coordi- nated management of cultivation and picker manage- ment. On his farm many aspects are standardised, with each picker harvesting between 50 and 74 m2 of the bed and holding responsibility for that particular
section. This facilitates the supervisor’s management tasks. The supervisors also have to pick 1 m2 to de- monstrate to the other pickers exactly what is expected from them. Finally, Feely stressed the importance of getting the picked mushrooms chilled quickly (within 30 minutes). Leslie Codd from Barretstown Mushrooms then took to the stage, and explained that on his farm they examine the financial revenue per picker. As a grower he was surprised that pickers con- sidered to be ‘good’ were not always able to translate this ability into profits for the business. Codd considers it vital to check the pickers at all times, but also to adapt the picking times to suit the growth of mushrooms. This session was rounded up by Tom Kellegher from Teagasc who tried to make it clear that although production in Ireland is still often indicated in pounds of mushrooms per ton compost, it is better to adopt the Dutch method of measuring using kg/m2. This is mainly connected to the fact that filling more compost leads to lower costs per m2, something that is not always apparent if pro- duction is expressed in pounds per ton of compost.
Energy After the coffee break – which is more likely to be tea in Ireland – part of the focus shifted to energy. Firstly, Helen Grogan indicated how much energy it takes to prevent dry bubble (Verticilium) and cobweb becoming a pest on a mushroom farm. As far as bubble goes, Grogan demonstrated that 95% of the bubble spores come into contact with the casing soil at the moment of casing. “I would like to emphasise again just how important hygiene is in controlling sciarids.” Dry bubble spores are not spread by the air, they need a carrier. It’s a different story with cobweb mould. These spores are larger and can be carried by air movement independently. Grogan also stated that using Sporgon
Mary and Gerard Cogan from Western Casing Ltd.
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