Back in the 1800’s, oats was Irelands most widely grown crop, but now it our third biggest cereal produced with about 22,000 hectares planted each year. Ireland can grow some of the best oats in the world – our climate can produce the highest yields and excellent grain quality. It is nearly all spring type varieties that are grown, however about 40% of the planting takes place in the autumn (which we refer to ‘winter oats’) and the balance is sown in spring.

Oats is used primarily in equine & sheep feeds, and there is also a significant portion (25%) which goes into oatmeal and food ingredients. Goldcrop work closely with key industry users of oats such as Flahavans and Glanbia and we are also the largest assembler / producer of oats seed in Ireland.