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David Hobson
Dunsany, Co Meath
David has had a very busy couple of weeks on the farm between land drainage, planting, spreading fertiliser, and spraying.
Spring barley and spring beans are currently being planted, and he hopes to finish this in the next few days if the weather stays dry. Ground is being worked to 10cm with a Horsch Terrano before planting, and the soil has been in great condition.
The Lynx spring beans are being planted at 230kg/ha, with either 375kg/ha of 0-7-30 or 220kg/ha of 0-0-50 applied, depending on soil indices. The farm is also using a lot of organic manures, with lots of compost and chicken manure spread last week.
The fertiliser spreader was busy recently, catching up on work to ensure that all winter crops had received their compound fertiliser. Some of the winter wheat was very forward so David delayed applying fertiliser here. The main split of nitrogen is being applied to the wheat this week.
Winter barley
Liquid nitrogen will mostly be used for the rest of the season.
The winter barley received its main split of nitrogen last week just before the rain arrived to ensure it was washed in.
There were tough conditions for spraying in the past few weeks with frosty nights and a harsh wind, but David managed to get some done once this dissipated.
The winter oilseed rape received a second application of Caryx (0.7l/ha), Bortrac (3l/ha), and prothioconazole (0.4l/ha), which should help with growth regulation and keep disease at bay.
The winter barley received a growth regulator of K2 (1.25l/ha) with trace elements. There is a good amount of net blotch in KWS Cassia and KWS Tardis, but the T1 fungicide will be applied this week and should clean this up.
David has found some active yellow rust in Graham winter wheat in a couple of fields, so this was treated with tebuconazole.
The wheat is at GS30 so chlormequat and Moddus have been applied along with Comet 200 and trace elements. He says that manganese deficiency is evident in some fields on gravel.
Stephen Wallace
Mountrath, Co Laois
Stephen says the weather has been unbelievable in Laois, allowing him to finish his spring planting just before the rain arrived last Friday. The last to be planted was 5ac of spring beans.
This was an area of winter beans that Stephen decided to replant because crows decimated the crop.
The ground was disced and then Protina beans were planted with a one-pass at 220kg/ha. The high seeding rate is due to the high thousand grain weight of the beans.
He plans to apply a herbicide this week, with the recent rainfall providing ideal conditions for the pre-emergence herbicide. The remaining winter beans look good. They received their P and K fertiliser recently.
The spring barley was planted last week. The crop of Hurler is for feed and was planted at 185kg/ha. The fields were ploughed before slurry was applied with an umbilical system and disced in.
The barley was planted with the one-pass and Stephen managed to get everything rolled. The headlands were ploughed and sowed separately to reduce compaction.
There was no chemical fertiliser applied to the seedbed as he is waiting on lab test results on the slurry to know exactly how much he still needs to apply. The spring barley has already germinated and will be emerging soon.
Tyre marks
Pig slurry was also applied to the winter oats and winter wheat two weeks ago. It seems to have done very little damage to the crops, and Stephen says you cannot really see tyre marks in the fields. They will receive no compound fertiliser this year because of the slurry.
The two crops are still tillering and have not quite reached GS30 yet. They look very healthy with no disease present, and he is very hopeful for these crops this year.
A plant growth regulator will be applied to the oats as soon as they hit GS30.
Pádraig Connery
Villierstown, Co Waterford
The spring has been much easier for Pádraig this year, and he has finished planting. He still has some drilling to do for a neighbour and will see if anyone else needs help this week.
He is also up to date on his winter crops. An average of 500kg/ha of 13-5-25 was applied to all the winter cereals, with this amount adjusting depending on soil indices and whether slurry was applied before planting. It was applied in two splits.
Pádraig also applied the main split of nitrogen to the winter barley two weeks ago. The crop looks very good and he is planning his fungicide programme for the barley this week. He has already applied Boudha to control volunteer beans, Axial Pro to control wild oats, and a growth regulator of CeCeCe 750. Trace elements were also included in the mix.
The winter oats are a little off colour at present, but it is most likely a varietal effect and there should not be any issues.
The latest split of fertiliser and warmer temperatures should help the crop to green up again.
The spring beans were planted four weeks ago but are not yet peeping through. A pre-emergence herbicide of Nirvana at 4.3l/ha was applied. No chemical fertiliser will be applied to the crop because slurry was applied before planting.
All of the spring barley is planted too, with about 95% of it rolled afterwards in great conditions. Some fields received slurry before ploughing. After ploughing, some fields were cultivated with a disc harrow and others with a paddle roller.
One field is being used as a trial, with one half of it paddle rolled, and the other half disced. Pádraig will keep an eye on it throughout the year to see what differences emerge.
Compound fertiliser was applied before planting. He has three malting and distilling contracts this year, with Hurler, Laureate, and SY Amity planted at between 185 and 195kg/ha depending on the thousand grain weight.
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