Another week passes with little letup in the spring weather. This week we hear from growers in Kildare, Down and Kerry and get an update on their winter crop and spring cropping progress. While some progress has been made with winter crop husbandry tasks, none of the growers have been able to make a start at spring planting yet. Decisions will soon have to be made on whether or not to change the spring cropping regime where beans are planned. Stephen Robb reports
Athy , Co Kildare
Despite farming on light sandy loam soil in Athy, ground conditions remain a challenge and limited progress has been made with spring work on Andrew’s farm.
Growing all spring crops this year, most of his ground was sown with a combination of hairy or spring vetch, crimson clover, phacelia, buckwheat, mustard, oil or tillage radish between 25 July to 15 September in 2017. All of the cover crops were sprayed off in March with glyphosate (2l/ha) and spring crops will be drilled directly into them using a 4m Horsch Co4 trailed drill.
So far no spring crops have been planted but spring beans are still very much on the table. “I’m still going to sow beans, the three-crop rule doesn’t give you much flexibility.”
Andrew has home-saved Fanfare bean seed which he plans to plant but, with a TGW of 720g, there’s a chance the drill may block.
He plans to sow Planet malting barley and the non-GN distilling variety Laureate at 185-190kg/ha but seed shortages could be an issue. Andrew plans to sow Husky spring oats at 160kg/ha. He is still awaiting delivery of his Scuba pea seed from Bachelors which hasn’t arrived yet. This year he also plans to save some Black Oat seed to cut down on the cost of establishing cover crops. Andrew has applied Polysulphate (48% SO3, 14% K2O, 6% MgO and 17% CaO) on most of his the spring cropping fields at 100kg/ha.
For the first time this year he intends on applying liquid fertiliser with the seed when drilling. After retrofitting his seed drill throughout the winter, Andrew plans to drill either 6:10:0 or 7:8:1 liquid compound at 100l/ha. These have a pH value of 6 and 3 respectively. This will serve as a starter compound for the germinating seed.
Andrew also plans to apply 100kg/ha of 5:6:35 on all spring cereal ground just before drilling as he wants to be sure that conditions are right to avoid the risk of loss.
“It’s when you get things about 80% right that temptation starts to set in. But in a late year that’s the wrong thing to do as you can’t afford to muck crops in.”
Poyntzpass, Co Down
After a brief period of respite in the last week of March, intermittent rain has returned which means things are once again behind on Simon’s farm.
Winter crops which includes wheat and oats are backward for this time of year at GS22. Around half of these crops have received 90kg of N/ha plus 27kg of sulphur in liquid form.
Winter oilseed rape is at the green bud stage and is advancing well. The crop has received 170kg of N/ha and 50kg of S which is virtually all of its planned fertiliser.
Simon buys fertiliser in granular form and uses a mixing plant to blend his own liquid nitrogen suspensions. For his winter crops, he mixed urea and sulphate of ammonia and applied it with his Hardi TWIN air-assisted 24 metre sprayer.
The WOSR is due its first fungicide this week which will consist of Proline (0.6l/ha), azoxystrobin (0.5l/ha) as well as EPSO Microtop trace elements (7kg/ha).
Most of the winter oats received the pre-emerge Herold (flufenacet/DFF) (0.3l/ha) last autumn. Winter wheat received little autumn weed control so an application of Othello (1.0l/ha) will be applied in the coming weeks.
An application of Moddus or Medax Max will also be applied to winter cereals as they approach GS30.
Disease pressure is generally low. “This time last year we were plagued with mildew but this year there’s really no pressure. It just goes to show you that every season is different.”
No ploughing for spring crops has been done so far but Simon generally doesn’t plough far ahead in the spring. They are busy applying 25-50t/ha of green waste compost on spring ground at the moment.
“Spring beans need to go in soon but we’re by no means ruling them out. They generally do well and are a good break crop,” explains Simon.
He plans to sow Fuego beans at 250kg/ha using his Horsch Pronto Express 3m mounted seed drill after ploughing. Simon then plans to sow Husky oats at 160kg/ha once ground conditions permit.
“Ground conditions are wet at the moment but, with the longer days, they can turn around quickly. In general, conditions are carrying better than expected.”
Tralee, Co Kerry
North Kerry hasn’t escaped the poor weather over the past number of weeks as rain and low temperatures have hampered spring work. Ground conditions are making winter crop husbandry tasks difficult, explains Ronan.
Currently, two-thirds of his Quadra, Carneval and Tower winter barley have received 250 kg/ha of 26%N + 6% sulphur. These crops are around mid-tillering and, even though the nitrogen has had a visible impact, growth has still been limited.
An application of CCC (1.25l/ha) and Optimus (0.2l/ha), as well as Gramitrel trace elements (1.5l/ha) containing copper, manganese, zinc and magnesium will be applied once the crops are at stem extension.
Ronan’s remaining winter barley crops are yet to receive their first N application. These crops are sown on heavy ground, making it more difficult to travel on. Even though these crops haven’t gone yellow yet, they are seriously in need of nitrogen, explains Ronan.
Most of the winter crops were sown in relatively high fertility soils which received 3,000 gallons/ac of cattle slurry last autumn. Forward crops will receive 85-100kg K/ha over the next number of weeks.
The winter crops have all received an autumn herbicide with an aphicide and remain relatively weed free this spring.
Spring cropping progress has been slow and no ground has been ploughed yet. Ronan estimates that just 10% of spring cropping area has been ploughed in the north Kerry region. However, it is still considered early for spring sowing in the area.
Ronan plans to apply 370kg/ha of 8:10:20+S on ploughed ground after rolling before power harrowing and drilling with his 3m mounted Amazone seed drill.
His plan now is to plant Yukon spring oats at 180kg/ha and Gangway and Irina spring barley at 180-190kg/ha. Like most farms across the country, all of the seed is sitting in the shed ready to go and Ronan is just waiting on the opportunity to make a start.
“On a given day, the ground could be ready to work tomorrow but then it would rain and you’d be back to square one.”