MYFARM
In each edition of “Mushroom Business”, we publish an interview with a grower. The emphasis here is on the farm and cultivation methods. This issue features a portrait of Gerard and Mary Fegan’s farm, C&L Mushrooms close to Mayobridge in
Northern Ireland. By John Peeters
C&L Mushrooms (UK) The grower
“I started mushroom growing in Northern Ireland about 30 years ago in one room. In all the years after that we kept on growing steadily. We extended or modernised the facilities, bought a machine, installed Dutch style shelving to replace the bag system and so on. We have never stood still. The farm is currently in really good shape, we have made some huge advances in professional- ising our approach. Today, and
I run the farm together with my wife Mary, you have to be more of a manager than a grower. If you are not, according to me you have a bleak future. As far as that goes, I am very happy with the support I receive from Northway, the producers organisation here in the north. Northway enabled us to equip the farm as you see it now, with good machines, ‘shocker’ cooling like our colleagues in Poland so the mushrooms can be cooled as quickly as
possible before transport to the UK and a Colwell spraying installation to mention just a few things. Getting hold of phase III compost has been more difficult in recent years, but that is also something that Northway is working on. The current situation, with the sterling/euro exchange rate, is a massive challenge. Growers in the Eurozone, which we aren’t part of, can offer cheaper mushrooms. But that can all change just as quickly.”
Cultivation
The Fegans’ farm has 10 growing rooms with a surface area of 320 square metres, and a further seven measuring 620 square metres. They use 107 tons of incubated compost per week, 55 supplied by Tandragee in Northern Ireland and 52 from Carbury, the compost company that is part of Monaghan Mushrooms in the Republic of Ireland. The Tandragee compost has all been spawned with Sylvan A15,
Photo: Gerard and Mary Fegan: “Exchange rate is a massive challenge.” 40 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
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