A well attended field walk on the farm of Mervyn and Fred McCann in Athy provided an opportunity to view excellent crops and for good discussion. The Glanbia organised field walk showed the benefits of having soil in good condition and Fred reported that the crops had improved considerably in the preceding week.

The first stop was a field of winter wheat sown on 2 October. In this field, both JB Diego and Avatar were sown following winter rape. The field was Index 3 for P and K and it received 30 units of P/ac, plus 120 units of K. Less than half of this was applied in the autumn as 0:7:30 with the balance applied as spring compound. It received 180 units N/ac. Wolftrax magnesium was applied on the compound in the spring, followed by a foliar application of magnesium.

This field also received 2,000 gallons per acre of pig slurry digestate in the autumn. It is important to note that this is a high-yielding farm and big yields remove a large amount of P and K. The nutrients supplied by the digestate is additional to that applied in the compounds.

In terms of weed control, this crop received IPU plus DFF (3.0 l/ha + 0.25 l/ha), as well as aphicide, on 11 November. For growth regulation, it was sprayed with Freeze plus CCC (0.2 + 1.5 l/ha) on 13 April followed by Freeze (0.25 l/ha) on 5 May.

This crop was clean with little obvious septoria. Flag leaves were emerging. It received chlorothalonil at GS31; A mix of Adexar and Cauldron at T1 to hold eyespot and is destined for a T2 this week. It is also planned to apply liquid K with the T2 and T3 sprays.

There was an amount of volunteer six-row winter barley present from two years ago. Both subsequent crops were min-tilled, hence the volunteers. Good ploughing could prove very useful in this type of situation but it should only be done once, preferably ahead of the crop that is most sensitive to volunteers. Volunteers would be a more serious issue where gluten-free oats are grown.

There was no volunteer barley on the headland which had been sprayed with Broadway Star for brome.

Quadra hybrid barley

A crop of Quadra winter barley was almost fully headed out and beginning to flower last week. This was sown on 27 September at 6.25 stones per acre (94.7kg/ha) and it was a full crop with up to 700 ears per square metre – more than enough for a six-row crop. This crop was after winter barley, following wheat, and it was dressed with Latitude. It was also treated with Redigo Deter, but received a further two aphicides, one in late October and the other in late November.

Fertilisation was similar to the wheat, with two splits of P and K and a total of 171 units N/ac (213 kgN/ha).

This crop received Freeze plus CCC (0.2 + 1.0 l/ha) on 22 March, followed by Terpal on 19 April. It was also sprayed with manganese in March and magnesium in April. It also received liquid K in mid-May. A small area had been missed with one or other of the growth regulator treatments and this was at least 20cm taller.

IPU plus DFF were used for weed control and these were applied in late October.

Disease control began on 22 March with a combination of Jenton plus Proline (1.2 + 0.3 l/ha). This was followed by Bontima plus chlorothalonil on 19 April and Ceriax plus chlorothalonil on 16 May.

Wild oats

During the discussion, it was noted that there were no treatments for wild oats in any of the fields visited. The McCanns said that they used to have a wild oat problem, which was treated at the time and then rogued.

They have not sprayed this land for wild oats for the past few years but it is all walked and rogued. However, other land must still be still treated. Not having to spray for this and other grass weeds represents a significant cost saving.