Winter crops fare well but dryness very evident in spring crops

This week’s report from the fields goes north of the border to the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), and specifically to AFBI Crossnacreevy Plant Testing Station. This variety testing station lies just south of Belfast in the Castlereagh Hills and is involved in various aspects of variety testing for crops and forages on about 30ha.

AFBI Crossnacreevy conducts statutory testing for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland, as well as other work for the UK and a number of other EU member states through bilateral agreements. It hosts the Official Seed Testing Station for Northern Ireland which is responsible for seed testing and certification.

Varieties recommended for use in Northern Ireland can be quite different to those recommended by the Departments of Agriculture in the south, with only about 25% common to both jurisdictions. Varieties are tested in Crossnacreevy and also on Richard Kane’s farm in Limavaddy.

I recently spoke to Lisa Black, a principal scientific officer at AFBI, about how crops and varieties were performing in that region where trials manager, Colin Garrett, looks after things.

It seems opportunities to plant winter crops were somewhat more favourable than further south. Lisa told me conditions at planting were not so troublesome and seedbeds were reasonable. About 80% of the intended crop area was sown so there is additional spring area planted as a consequence.

While winter crop establishment was reasonable, substantial winter rainfall still caused damage leaving gaps and holes in crops due to the wet. Excluding the blank areas, Lisa said winter crops look relatively good and seem very healthy, with little sign of drought stress so far.

The site received approximately 22mm of rain in April and May combined

But they are a little on the thin side relative to other years and only time will tell if this affects grain yield.

In general, winter crops seem to be faring well despite the ongoing dryness. And this may be happening with less than full nutrition levels, as fertiliser granules remain visible on the soil surface. The site received approximately 22mm of rain in April and May combined. It is now quite dry and spring crops are showing the impact of this dryness.

The winter wheat plots sown at AFBI Crossnacreevy are single-variety observation plots that are not sprayed to control disease. The full replicated recommended list trials are conducted in Limavaddy.

These 46 winter wheat varieties now vary between GS55 and GS61, so from halfway through earing out to fully eared out.

Septoria levels are exceptionally low, with 2% being the highest infection level in the variety Elysium. There are traces of yellow rust visible in LG Spotlight and Skyscraper.

There is also a small bit of mildew about

While the levels of both of these diseases can be regarded as insignificant, Lisa commented that the ones that have even a little disease now are likely to be most susceptible if the diseases do get an opportunity to take off in the next week or two.

There is also a small bit of mildew about, but this seems to be mainly confined to one new variety being tested for the first time and perhaps this provides an ominous sign for upcoming selection decisions.

Both winter and spring varieties are grown at AFBI Crossnacreevy but, as with the wheat, the winter barley varieties are single plots grown for disease observation and left untreated. There are 36 varieties of winter barley at the site. The average growth stage currently is GS73, so into grain fill, but there is huge variability in growth stages between individual varieties, Lisa reported.

The winter barley crop is relatively good, but a little on the thin side. The overall potential of crops will be heavily influenced by the degree of patchiness in individual fields as this crop does not particularly like standing in water for long.

In general, disease levels are very low thus far. Lisa said that mildew is only present on two of those varieties, KWS Creswel and Patriot, and even that is at very low levels.

There is some rhyncho in Cassia, and only in that variety, but the incidence is less than 1%. You would have to work hard to find disease at this incidence level. There is a little ramularia infection evident too but, again, this is extremely low so far.

As with the winter wheat, the fertiliser granules are still evident on the soil surface.

Spring barley at the site was sown from mid-April onwards and has fared relatively well compared with crops that were sown earlier because these have been affected by the drought for longer. However, all 22 varieties sown for replicated testing are showing stunted growth because of the dryness. Fertiliser utilisation appears to be poor.

These varieties are now at GS 31/32 and there is some evidence of BYDV in the plots at relatively low levels. There is significant colour variability within and between plots, again as a consequence of the dryness.

These trial plots were treated for disease, but disease levels are virtually non-existent. Lisa expects crops to continue to race through growth stages unless there is adequate rain shortly to help vegetative growth.

Both winter and spring oats are grown at the site and all oat crops appear to have fared quite well despite the dry conditions. Virtually all the winter-sown oats are winter-hardy types and most of these are now 50% to 75% eared out at the site. Lisa said they do have some winter-sown Husky and this is considerably more advanced than the winter types with the same sowing date.

The winter-sown plots appear to have coped well with the winter wet and the spring dryness. There is no disease of any sort evident in the different varieties so far. Lisa said there was an amount of purple colouration evident on the leaves earlier in the spring but this has since cleared up.

The spring variety trial was sown in the second half of April and this appears to have coped better with the weather conditions than other crops. Varieties are now generally around GS30. One long-serving variety called Firth was slow to establish and was a bit behind the other varieties all spring, but it is catching up now, Lisa reported.

While these oat varieties look good, they are less lush than other years and this may be a contributing factor to the fact that there is no disease present in any of the varieties, at least for the moment. Plants are short and they have been racing through the growth stages in response to the combination of heat and dryness. This may change now if the weather gets wetter.

Varieties of rye are also being tested at AFBI Crossnacreevy and they are just getting into flowering now at about 6ft tall. Lisa told me there is a growing interest in the crop and some farmers really like it. The crop is being grown for anaerobic digestors, for milling uses like bread and also as an animal feed, with pigs as the main target.

The research is looking at the yield and suitability of varieties when grown in Northern Ireland. Only winter types are grown and Lisa said that they are extremely winter hardy. Growers particularly like the ease of management and the early harvest.