Autumn planting is now underway in most areas. Growers have been making reasonable progress in good ground conditions up to now. Having reported the latest winter cereal recommended lists in recent articles, this week we asked some former ‘From the Tramlines’ growers about winter planting progress and the varieties they have chosen.

Paul O’Connell, Ballybrittas, Co Laois.

Paul started drilling this week and has three to four weeks’ work ahead of him. He uses a one-pass system to establish both winter barley and wheat.

“Thirty-five percent of my winter barley will be planted with LG Castings. I grew this variety for the first time last year and it yielded very well,” Paul said. About 10% of his area will be sown to Valerie and 20% to Infinity: “Infinity is nothing special, but I would describe it as a steady variety – not a big yielder, but steady,” he remarked. The remaining 25% will be sown with Belfry.

“Around 45% of my winter wheat area will be planted with Graham, as it has been the top performer around here,” he added. Around 40% of Paul’s area will be planted with Bennington, while the last 10% will be planted with the new variety RGT Saki.

Martin Hoste, Clonee, Co Meath.

Martin began planting wheat last week and hopes to be about 75% through winter planting by mid-week. He had already planted winter oilseed rape and does not intend to sow winter barley or oats. However, he will have some spring barley on a farm that seems to particularly suit that crop.

The 75ac of winter oilseed rape was sown to Ambassador and a Clearfield variety, on charlock-infested land.

Martin hopes to have 60% of his winter wheat sown by early this week. He began by planting Theodore winter wheat on the home farm as a new variety to try out. This is said to have good disease resistance and so suits the early slot. Martin planted RGT Saki at the start of this week and when the weather picks up again, he intends to plant the balance to Graham, which is dressed with Latitude (1.0l/t).

David Moody, St Johnston, Co Donegal.

David started planting winter barley last week into good ground conditions and progress has been steady. He has around 50% planted and hopes to be finished winter barley by the weekend. After that, another week should see him complete winter wheat and oats. Half of his winter barley will be sown to Belfry and the rest to Valerie. “Belfry is a step-up from the others and has a good disease profile,” he said. He grew Valerie last year and was happy with it. David will only sow Graham winter wheat this year.

“We want to keep things simple. Graham copes well with the weather and is easy to keep clean,” he said. Disease profile and lodging/sprouting resistance are very important for David. He also intends to sow Isabel oats this autumn: “It did very well last year, stands well and produced a grain KPH of 62 when dried.”

Vivian Tubritt, New Ross, Co Wexford.

Vivian started planting winter barley this week. He is planting about 120ac of Quadra winter barley on some tough ground, as he believes it will be relatively hardy in such conditions.

He would normally plant all of his own grain, but this week he hired in a local contractor to sow the winter barley, using min-till for the first time. He hopes that this will suit that tougher ground.

Vivian hopes to put in around 40ac of winter wheat, weather permitting, after potatoes are harvested. He has not considered a variety option for this yet, as he wants to get the potatoes out and the field cleared first.

He feels that the substantial rejection of malting barley locally may result in more acres planted to winter crops this autumn, as growers there look to spread their risk.

Simon Best, Poyntzpass, Co Down.

Simon is around 40% through winter planting. Drilling began a day after finishing his harvest, so there has been little downtime. He runs a plough-based system and is aiming to be finished sowing within 10 days. This year, he is growing winter oilseed rape, barley, wheat, and oats. Half of his winter oilseed area is sown to a Clearfield variety, with the other half to a conventional variety, Aspire.

“We only started to grow big areas of winter barley again last year and I was happy with how it performed. Around 57% of our area will be Valarie as it performed very well last year,” he said. Of the balance, 22% will be sown to Infinity, with the remaining 21% to the new hybrid variety, Thunderbolt. Graham will be Simon’s only winter wheat variety this year, as it has done very well for him over the past few years. He also intends to grow Mascani winter oats for milling.

Larry Doyle, Busherstown, Co Carlow.

Larry has not begun winter cereal planting yet, but has 100ac of winter oilseed rape sown to DK Exstar, albeit a bit later than he would like on 10 September.

He would normally plant wheat first, but this year he will start with winter barley. He would prefer to hold off a little longer, but the broken forecast may push him to plant some Belfry, which was carried over from last autumn.

Larry plans to plant the Belfry using min-till to slow its development down a little. He has planted wheat using min-till previously, but never barley. He will also plant Valerie as about 40% of his winter barley.

When he gets on to winter wheat, he will start with Graham, which has done well for him in recent years. He is also considering some of the newer wheat varieties, but has not made his mind up yet.

Chris Bourns, Eyrecourt, Co Galway.

Chris just started drilling winter cereals this week. The drill generally stays close to the plough and if weather conditions allow, he will be finished drilling within eight days.

Chris prefers varieties that he knows to be steady performers on his farm.

He will plant two winter barley varieties this year, Cassia, and Infinity. “These varieties just work for me here. They are steady performers,” he said.

“We keep all of our crops for feed, so it is important we grow varieties with good specific weights – two-rows generally do that for us,” remarked Chris. He will grow JB Diego in both his first and second winter wheat slots. The variety has been a consistent performer for Chris. The seed for his second wheat slot is dressed with Latitude.

“JB did very well for us last year, around 4.0-4.2t/ac. Disease control didn’t seem to be a problem,” he said.

Stephen Collins, Mogeely, Co Cork.

Stephen was tempted to begin sowing this week, but he decided not to because of the BYDV risk in east Cork. He intends to begin next week, but is very conscious about the risks from grass weeds. Winter barley will be the first crop to go in, and if conditions remain good, he would like to finish barley and go on to wheat.

Stephen intends to plant Belfry, Kosmos and Valerie, starting with some carryover seed from last autumn. The plan is to have about 60% six-row and 40% two-row. He also has some KWS Joyou, which will be sown early for its BYDV resistance, but not too early because of its mildew risk.

He has two definite winter wheat varieties, Graham and Costello. After these are sown, he sees SY Insitor and Bennington as other possibilities.