Meath has missed a lot of the rain the rest of the country has experienced, meaning ground has been in great condition recently. Firstly, Sam cut the hedges of the winter cereal fields.
All of the verges and sides of the hedges are cut every year, but the tops of the hedges are only cut every third year to let the hedges bulk up and to provide cover for birds.
All land destined for maize next spring has been planted with a cover crop mixture of leafy turnip and forage rape. This has emerged and looks well.
Sam held off on sowing winter cereals with the bone-dry ground conditions until last week. A total of 80ac of winter barley was planted last week with a further 50ac in the ground earlier this week.
The varieties planted are KWS Joyau, KWS Tardis and Integral. The average seeding rate has been 185kg/ha.
The ground is ploughing up very nicely and there is no need for secondary cultivation before the one-pass. No pre-emergence herbicide has been applied to the barley but Sam hopes to get an early post-emergence spray on.
There are 350ac of winter wheat to be planted on the farm. A small proportion of this will be planted this week, but the remainder is to be planted after the maize is harvested.
A 3m margin on the Kepak Farm in Co Meath.
The varieties are Graham, Champion and Spearhead. The maize might be ripe next week. Sam says it has been slow to mature and it would usually be cut at this stage on the farm.
The maize looks good, but there are one or two patchy areas which will bring down the average yield.
The cattle side of the farm is also busy at the moment. A lot of cattle are being bought as Sam is stocking up the yard in preparation for the Christmas market.
Tony’s farm has been a hive of activity recently between harvesting and planting. The spring beans proved a disappointment, with yields averaging 1.25t/ac.
Tony says the beans were quite small and that many pods aborted in dry weather during the summer. Some crops got fertiliser, and others didn’t, but this made no difference and it all came down to which fields were struggling more with water stress.
However, with Tony’s low input costs, he says he will still make a gross profit of €70/ac. While this isn’t much, he says a high level of inputs would have left no profit. Tony says the lesson from this year is to go the low input route if planting beans in April.
The maize is under some water stress with dry soil too. Tony is worried about wind in his coastal location and some plants have been tossed already.
The cobs on Tony's maize are well developed and uniform.
His earliest crops will be ready to harvest in a week or two, but Tony says he will have to cut some crops before they fully mature. However, Tony does not have to worry about frost in his coastal location or ground conditions due to the good structure left by strip-tillage.
Tony’s use of early maturing varieties has ensured excellent grain fill when the crop was planted very late.
There is 135ac of forage triticale in the ground, with some of it at the two-leaf stage. This was strip-tilled, while humic acid (15l/ha) and an insecticide were applied post-emergence.
This winter, forage crop will provide a huge root mass to the soil and a highly digestible feed, which dairy farmers like for the boost it provides to milk production.
Tony's forage triticale was direct drilled using a strip-till drill. It has emerged uniformly and is growing strongly.
Tony has direct-drilled 40ac of Graham winter wheat at 180kg/ha last week after beans and potatoes. He is considering leaving his ground after maize for spring wheat because he got on very well with it this year and it is a lot cheaper to grow than winter wheat, and left a better margin this year.
Derry was forecast to get a lot of rain over the weekend, but Alistair says that very little arrived. This has allowed him to plant his winter cereals into dusty conditions, which is very rare in his part of the country.
The 10-way variety mix winter barley has emerged well and is at the two-leaf stage.
Alistair lowered the subsoiler legs of his drill this year because of the dry soil and to alleviate some compaction. Alistair did not apply a pre-emergence herbicide due to a machinery breakdown, so a post-emergence spray will be applied this week.
A total of 50ac of a six-way variety mix of winter wheat has been planted. This received a pre-emergence herbicide of pendimethalin.
There is another 50ac to plant once the spring beans and maize are harvested, which are one and three weeks away, respectively.
The winter oilseed rape that Alistair planted emerged excellently with no slug damage.
However, half of this area, about 14ac, disappeared overnight. Alistair says it is not due to slugs, but to the allelopathic effect of rye, the previous crop in the field. He says the rye was patchy, and where there was no rye, the oilseed rape is still perfect.
Alistair says that his minimum tillage system likely heightened the risk of this happening.
He says he planted oats and peas after rye last year and the peas did not grow. He had put this down to the very wet summer, but he now says it was probably because of the rye.
The vetch and buckwheat companion crops also died, but the beans are still growing.
Alistair spread some oats on the fields to have a cover crop over the winter.
He has also planted 12ac of winter beans at a depth of six inches. He says he might experiment with grazing the beans with sheep over winter, to see if it will promote tillering and because the beans have been planted very early.
Meath has missed a lot of the rain the rest of the country has experienced, meaning ground has been in great condition recently. Firstly, Sam cut the hedges of the winter cereal fields.
All of the verges and sides of the hedges are cut every year, but the tops of the hedges are only cut every third year to let the hedges bulk up and to provide cover for birds.
All land destined for maize next spring has been planted with a cover crop mixture of leafy turnip and forage rape. This has emerged and looks well.
Sam held off on sowing winter cereals with the bone-dry ground conditions until last week. A total of 80ac of winter barley was planted last week with a further 50ac in the ground earlier this week.
The varieties planted are KWS Joyau, KWS Tardis and Integral. The average seeding rate has been 185kg/ha.
The ground is ploughing up very nicely and there is no need for secondary cultivation before the one-pass. No pre-emergence herbicide has been applied to the barley but Sam hopes to get an early post-emergence spray on.
There are 350ac of winter wheat to be planted on the farm. A small proportion of this will be planted this week, but the remainder is to be planted after the maize is harvested.
A 3m margin on the Kepak Farm in Co Meath.
The varieties are Graham, Champion and Spearhead. The maize might be ripe next week. Sam says it has been slow to mature and it would usually be cut at this stage on the farm.
The maize looks good, but there are one or two patchy areas which will bring down the average yield.
The cattle side of the farm is also busy at the moment. A lot of cattle are being bought as Sam is stocking up the yard in preparation for the Christmas market.
Tony’s farm has been a hive of activity recently between harvesting and planting. The spring beans proved a disappointment, with yields averaging 1.25t/ac.
Tony says the beans were quite small and that many pods aborted in dry weather during the summer. Some crops got fertiliser, and others didn’t, but this made no difference and it all came down to which fields were struggling more with water stress.
However, with Tony’s low input costs, he says he will still make a gross profit of €70/ac. While this isn’t much, he says a high level of inputs would have left no profit. Tony says the lesson from this year is to go the low input route if planting beans in April.
The maize is under some water stress with dry soil too. Tony is worried about wind in his coastal location and some plants have been tossed already.
The cobs on Tony's maize are well developed and uniform.
His earliest crops will be ready to harvest in a week or two, but Tony says he will have to cut some crops before they fully mature. However, Tony does not have to worry about frost in his coastal location or ground conditions due to the good structure left by strip-tillage.
Tony’s use of early maturing varieties has ensured excellent grain fill when the crop was planted very late.
There is 135ac of forage triticale in the ground, with some of it at the two-leaf stage. This was strip-tilled, while humic acid (15l/ha) and an insecticide were applied post-emergence.
This winter, forage crop will provide a huge root mass to the soil and a highly digestible feed, which dairy farmers like for the boost it provides to milk production.
Tony's forage triticale was direct drilled using a strip-till drill. It has emerged uniformly and is growing strongly.
Tony has direct-drilled 40ac of Graham winter wheat at 180kg/ha last week after beans and potatoes. He is considering leaving his ground after maize for spring wheat because he got on very well with it this year and it is a lot cheaper to grow than winter wheat, and left a better margin this year.
Derry was forecast to get a lot of rain over the weekend, but Alistair says that very little arrived. This has allowed him to plant his winter cereals into dusty conditions, which is very rare in his part of the country.
The 10-way variety mix winter barley has emerged well and is at the two-leaf stage.
Alistair lowered the subsoiler legs of his drill this year because of the dry soil and to alleviate some compaction. Alistair did not apply a pre-emergence herbicide due to a machinery breakdown, so a post-emergence spray will be applied this week.
A total of 50ac of a six-way variety mix of winter wheat has been planted. This received a pre-emergence herbicide of pendimethalin.
There is another 50ac to plant once the spring beans and maize are harvested, which are one and three weeks away, respectively.
The winter oilseed rape that Alistair planted emerged excellently with no slug damage.
However, half of this area, about 14ac, disappeared overnight. Alistair says it is not due to slugs, but to the allelopathic effect of rye, the previous crop in the field. He says the rye was patchy, and where there was no rye, the oilseed rape is still perfect.
Alistair says that his minimum tillage system likely heightened the risk of this happening.
He says he planted oats and peas after rye last year and the peas did not grow. He had put this down to the very wet summer, but he now says it was probably because of the rye.
The vetch and buckwheat companion crops also died, but the beans are still growing.
Alistair spread some oats on the fields to have a cover crop over the winter.
He has also planted 12ac of winter beans at a depth of six inches. He says he might experiment with grazing the beans with sheep over winter, to see if it will promote tillering and because the beans have been planted very early.
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