With the poly coming off our early crops last week, crop programmes are in full swing.

30kg N/ha is going out on our early parsnip crop, herbicides programmes are starting on all crops and carrot fly treatments are also getting underway on all crops.

The early crop we covered with poly has had to be hand weeded as the chemical armoury we have is limited, and while it has cost €350/ac to get it cleaned, at least we can guarantee 100% weed control and let the crop kick on.

One of the standout features of our carrot and parsnip crops this spring has been the near perfect germination and emergence. With almost perfect emergence, it’s very easy to pick out any seeder issues.

Earlier this season we bought a Stanhay pneumatic seeder and after rebuilding and adding the required coulters, etc, the seeder was standing me around €6,500. Previously, we had seeded all our crops using an Agricola seeder contracted in which is more expensive but arguably is a more accurate machine.

Looking at our carrot crop which was seeded with an Agricola machine, the emergence and stand is the best we have ever had while the Stanhay machine doesn’t seem to have the same quality of work on our parsnips.

The major issue is the depth control and singulation and these two areas seem to be strengths of the Agricola. Doubles of misses are a disaster for root crops as you either get a root that is too big as a result of a miss, or too small where there are doubles.

Either way, you’re not going to make a lot of money with a bad seeder. The Stanhay seeds 3 lines per disc with 4 discs while the Agricola seeds 1 line per disc with 12 discs; therein lies the difference.

Hopefully for 2015 spring seeding we will have made the change over to an Agricola machine which will cost a bit more but will hopefully return higher also than our current system.