Last weekend, I travelled around east Cork and was a bit surprised to see so many spring crops looking a bit the worse for wear. While growers further north received a fair drop of rain in recent weeks, which has helped crops there, many spring crops in this part of the country looked like they could do with a soft day.

Spring barley suffering

Many spring crops, especially barley, showed the stress in terms of yellowing in tracks, patches and plants. BYDV looked to be some of the problem also, with individual plants hit in many crops.

Indeed, one of the more forward crops I saw had quite a lot of BYDV, with the whole of the top of the crop dominated by the elongated virus-infected leaves.

Crops varied in growth stage from early stem extension through to second node. And while some crops appeared to have a uniform colour and height, many still had variability from what appeared to be variable establishment across the drill width. This could be seen in the wavy appearance as one looked across the tramlines.

It looked like the poorer establishment was in the area beneath the tractor, which may have been caused by planting too deep or from lower establishment because of insufficient firming.

And with crops now finished tillering, many of these poorer areas may be past the time when they can compensate for fewer plants through extra tillering.

Once you get into stem extension, it is about tiller survival rather than tiller generation.

While it was obvious that variety played a part in the general colour differences between fields, there was still a lot of colour variability within fields.

One field I walked into showed very definite and severe manganese deficiency, but the symptoms present could have had an element of magnesium deficiency also.

While the symptoms showed the classical yellow leaves and plants, along with grey specking in the affected areas, the symptoms lacked the additional leaf growth and floppiness associated with manganese deficiency, where the leaf tries to increase its surface area to compensate for the fact that the rate of photosynthesis is not as great as it should be.

In this case, the floppiness was absent, which suggested that some other factor might also be affecting growth.

Crops were generally clean of weeds and diseases. However, one crop I walked into had a lot of mildew present. This seemed to be helped by the fact that the crop was under stress, but it could get a lot worse if rain unlocked the soft growth potential in these crops.

The majority of crops in this part of Cork did not have the same luxurious growth that is now evident in most crops further up the country.

Lots of beans about

Another thing that was striking about this area was the amount of beans present. This crop must have taken significant acres from spring barley in recent years, as has winter barley.

Many of these crops appeared to be planted quite early, given the height of the plants, with crops varying from about 25cm to 50cm tall. And the taller ones had begun flowering.

One crop I walked into was about 25cm tall and it had an amount of weevil notching present, especially on the newer leaves. The plants I pulled had very visible nitrogen fixation nodules present and there were many very high up on the tap root, which made me wonder if the seed had been inoculated with rhizobium at planting.

Still, while there were plenty nodules present and they were working because they showed the blood-red colour when cut, the crop lacked the vigorous growth and the deep green colour that one might expect to see at this time of year. And this comment is true of the more forward crops also, as these too lacked a strong green colour.

Wheat is unusually clean

Winter wheat is remarkably clean for the time of year in this part of the country.

The crops I walked into were good and dense, but patches in most fields were hit by the autumn wet, either directly as poor establishment or winter kill or as a result of slug damage.

Crops were past GS39 and the flag leaves were fully unfolded, with the ears swelling in the boot. Elsewhere in the county, ears are beginning to appear in early sown winter wheat.

Seldom can one walk into a winter wheat crop in Cork and find four or five almost totally clean leaves. I did find a bit of fresh septoria up the plant, but this was in an area that was probably missed with a fungicide on the ins and outs.

There was also a very small amount of eyespot evident, but this had not penetrated and, in general, this crop looked very clean and full of yield potential.

Winter barley potential

Winter barley was equally clean. There was a mix of two- and six-row varieties grown.

One of the fields I visited had a mix of two- and six-row present, but, given the variability of the six-row, it was probably a result of six-row volunteers from a previous harvest. But barley volunteers in a barley crop will not be a problem compared with an oat or wheat crop.

One crop I visited was at varying stages of flowering, with some ears not yet started, while others were 25% to 75% complete. And it was obvious that the six-row ears were more advanced with regard to flowering.

This crop was quite dense and it was clean to the ground. However, the density of the foliage was inhibiting light penetration and, as a result, many of the lower leaves were turning yellow to white, as they were being aborted by the plant because they no longer served any useful purpose.

Their death will enable the retranslocation of their nutrients to other parts of the plant where growth is more active.

Spring rape slow to secure ground cover

I also walked into a crop of spring oilseed rape, which was at the three-leaf stage. Pigeons were active in the field and they had obviously grazed leaves around the field, but had come to concentrate on one particular patch.

A shower or two of rain would kickstart growth and if it took off now, it would leave all its problems behind.

The crop had not yet reached full ground cover and there was a fair bit of weed present, including fat-hen, fumitory, charlock, pale persicaria, knotgrass and redshank.

There was also a fair bit of grassweed in places, which I could identify as canary grass judging by the crimson red colour formed on the stem when it was broken or cut.