This week we revisit growers from Meath, Cork and Derry where, over the last seven days, the focus switched to sowing 2019’s winter oilseed rape crop. The harvest has now been completed in the south for Stephen Collins, is nearing completion in the east for Martin Hoste and is still two weeks away from finishing in the north for Richard Kane. Stephen Robb reports.
Martin spreading 3.0kg of Axcela slug pellets on his recently sown winter oilseed rape crop.
Clonee, Co Meath
With little rain over the past month, things are still very dry in Clonee. Surprisingly though, there’s still reasonable moisture levels in the soil, which Martin observed as he was setting his winter oilseed rape (WOSR) last week.
The harvest has gone smoothly so far, helped in part by the great harvest weather. Martin’s WOSR finished up yielding just over 1.9t/ac at between 8.4% and 9.7% moisture content. His spring barley was harvested a month ago and averaged 2.0t/ac. This ranged from 2.7t/ac on good ground to 1.5t/ac on reclaimed ground. Straw yields averaged four 4x4 round bales per acre, back from 10 to 12 bales on an average year.
His beans were burned off over a week and a half ago. However, it’s only within the last number of days that the crop has turned. “We had a couple of cold nights, I’d say that helped to knock the leaves off,” explains Martin. While the pods were black, the crop remained green and lush up until this point. The harvest remains a week and a half away.
New oilseed rape genetics
Martin sowed his WOSR last week. His ground was cultivated and rolled to allow volunteers to germinate. He applied Ardee (1.5l/ha) along with Nauturhumus-Bio Fulvic (2.0l/ha) to kill any volunteers. Martin then sowed the Clearfield enabled oilseed rape variety Phoenix at 2.0kg/ha. This has allowed him to sow oilseed rape in ground which traditionally had high levels of praiseach (Charlock). When applied at the correct stages, Clearfield (CL) herbicides can then be sprayed on these CL-enabled varieties without causing harm, while killing other brassica weeds. The crop was combi-drilled with 20kg/ha of RadioStart and Martin expects to see it emerging this week. Around 3.0kg of Axcela slug pellets was applied after sowing.
This week Martin dressed home-saved seed. He plans to sow most of his winter wheat area in Costello this year. The variety performed well on his farm in 2017, averaging 4.5t/ac. Redigo Deter (2.0l/t) was applied on seed destined for first wheat while Latitude (2.0l/t) was applied on seed for second wheat.
“I’ll be taking spring beans out of the rotation this year, I just have no ground suitable for it.”
Stephen sowing Anastasia winter oilseed rape earlier this week.
Mogeely, Co Cork
The weather during August has been close to ideal for the spring crop harvest in Mogeely. Broken weather only really returned at the end of the month but caused little disruption. As a result, Stephen’s harvesting campaign has been a pleasure and was finished in record time.
“We had over 15ml of rain on the Saturday we finished, this was the largest amount of rain we had in a long time,” explains Stephen. That rain was welcomed as it ensured adequate moisture was in the ground when drilling oilseed rape and was also needed for his beet crop.
The harvest finished on 25 August. His spring barley performed better than expected but average yields were back. Yields ranged from 2.3t/ac to 3.0t/ac with specific weights between 62KPH and 70KPH.
Moistures were low. Interestingly, the last field of spring barley Stephen sowed was on 18 May and the expectations were that this crop would perform poorly. However, the field averaged 2.7t/ac.
Straw yields were poor, ranging anywhere between four to eight 4x4 round bales per acre. This is in contrast to straw yields from his spring wheat crop, which averaged around nine 4x4 bales per acre.
The wheat appeared to have missed the worst effects of the drought and looked well all season. His Doubleshot crop spring wheat yielded 3.25t/ac, which he was reasonably happy with. Specific weights were good, averaging around 78KPH. His wheat was dried using his 12t Alvan Blanch continuous flow dryer from 17% to 14%.
Countdown on to beet harvest
Stephen thinks the first of his fodder beet could be lifted in around six weeks’ time. The rest will be pulled as required. The dry weather affected the crop but it is now growing well. After consideration, he decided not to apply an insecticide as numbers of Silver Y Moth caterpillars in his crops weren’t high enough to justify an application.
His winter oilseed rape ground was ploughed and pressed with a Rexius roller and lime was applied at 2.0t/ac. Stephen sowed the variety Anastasia this week at 3.0kg/ha (65 seeds/m2).
“The harvest went very smoothly, it was relatively stress free and overall, yields were better than I expected.”
Richard Kane
Richard harvesting spring oilseed last week. So far the crop has averaged 1.6t/ac.
Limavady, Co Derry
After a number of wet weeks during August, the weather eventually settled down last week which allowed harvest work to recommence.
During those wet weeks, little harvest work was done and at one stage Richard had close to 200ac of straw waiting to be baled.
Some of this had to be turned. Straw in one field in particular had to be turned seven times in order to bale it as the ground needed to be cleared to host a Claas open day being held on Richard’s farm.
Good progress has been made over the past week.
Having started three weeks ago, the last of the winter wheat was cut on Thursday.
“Some of it was cut quite damp but it was getting to the stage where we had to get it in the shed,” explains Richard.
Around 10% of the crop didn’t survive the winter but remaining crops yielded well, at around 4.5t/ac. These were first wheat after WOSR.
Quality was high and the average moisture at the time of harvest was 22% but it has all now been dried to 15%. Around 25% of his winter wheat crop goes for seed and cleaning and dressing will commence soon. Straw yields averaged five 8x4x2.5 bales per acre.
Spring oilseed rape surprise
Forty acres of spring oilseed rape (SOSR) ripened faster than expected and as result, the crop was harvested last week. The remaining 70ac won’t be ready for another week. So far the crops did very well, averaging 1.6t/ac at 16% moisture with four bales per acre.
“We’re increasing our spring oilseed area, it’s a cheaper crop to grow than winter oilseed and the last three winter planting seasons have been challenging,” Richard remarks.
He cut a small amount of spring wheat this week for crimping but the main crop won’t be harvested for another week. Richard started cutting Scholar spring barley for seed this week and has so far averaged 3.25t/ac at 19-20% moisture. He sowed Sparrow WOSR (2.5kg/ha) last weekend and rolled it afterwards.
“We have another two weeks of harvesting left. I’d say were around one week behind were we would normally be.”
Read more
Harvest 18: harvest winding down but broken weather staggers progress
Harvest 18: broken weather slows completion of harvest
This week we revisit growers from Meath, Cork and Derry where, over the last seven days, the focus switched to sowing 2019’s winter oilseed rape crop. The harvest has now been completed in the south for Stephen Collins, is nearing completion in the east for Martin Hoste and is still two weeks away from finishing in the north for Richard Kane. Stephen Robb reports.
Martin spreading 3.0kg of Axcela slug pellets on his recently sown winter oilseed rape crop.
Clonee, Co Meath
With little rain over the past month, things are still very dry in Clonee. Surprisingly though, there’s still reasonable moisture levels in the soil, which Martin observed as he was setting his winter oilseed rape (WOSR) last week.
The harvest has gone smoothly so far, helped in part by the great harvest weather. Martin’s WOSR finished up yielding just over 1.9t/ac at between 8.4% and 9.7% moisture content. His spring barley was harvested a month ago and averaged 2.0t/ac. This ranged from 2.7t/ac on good ground to 1.5t/ac on reclaimed ground. Straw yields averaged four 4x4 round bales per acre, back from 10 to 12 bales on an average year.
His beans were burned off over a week and a half ago. However, it’s only within the last number of days that the crop has turned. “We had a couple of cold nights, I’d say that helped to knock the leaves off,” explains Martin. While the pods were black, the crop remained green and lush up until this point. The harvest remains a week and a half away.
New oilseed rape genetics
Martin sowed his WOSR last week. His ground was cultivated and rolled to allow volunteers to germinate. He applied Ardee (1.5l/ha) along with Nauturhumus-Bio Fulvic (2.0l/ha) to kill any volunteers. Martin then sowed the Clearfield enabled oilseed rape variety Phoenix at 2.0kg/ha. This has allowed him to sow oilseed rape in ground which traditionally had high levels of praiseach (Charlock). When applied at the correct stages, Clearfield (CL) herbicides can then be sprayed on these CL-enabled varieties without causing harm, while killing other brassica weeds. The crop was combi-drilled with 20kg/ha of RadioStart and Martin expects to see it emerging this week. Around 3.0kg of Axcela slug pellets was applied after sowing.
This week Martin dressed home-saved seed. He plans to sow most of his winter wheat area in Costello this year. The variety performed well on his farm in 2017, averaging 4.5t/ac. Redigo Deter (2.0l/t) was applied on seed destined for first wheat while Latitude (2.0l/t) was applied on seed for second wheat.
“I’ll be taking spring beans out of the rotation this year, I just have no ground suitable for it.”
Stephen sowing Anastasia winter oilseed rape earlier this week.
Mogeely, Co Cork
The weather during August has been close to ideal for the spring crop harvest in Mogeely. Broken weather only really returned at the end of the month but caused little disruption. As a result, Stephen’s harvesting campaign has been a pleasure and was finished in record time.
“We had over 15ml of rain on the Saturday we finished, this was the largest amount of rain we had in a long time,” explains Stephen. That rain was welcomed as it ensured adequate moisture was in the ground when drilling oilseed rape and was also needed for his beet crop.
The harvest finished on 25 August. His spring barley performed better than expected but average yields were back. Yields ranged from 2.3t/ac to 3.0t/ac with specific weights between 62KPH and 70KPH.
Moistures were low. Interestingly, the last field of spring barley Stephen sowed was on 18 May and the expectations were that this crop would perform poorly. However, the field averaged 2.7t/ac.
Straw yields were poor, ranging anywhere between four to eight 4x4 round bales per acre. This is in contrast to straw yields from his spring wheat crop, which averaged around nine 4x4 bales per acre.
The wheat appeared to have missed the worst effects of the drought and looked well all season. His Doubleshot crop spring wheat yielded 3.25t/ac, which he was reasonably happy with. Specific weights were good, averaging around 78KPH. His wheat was dried using his 12t Alvan Blanch continuous flow dryer from 17% to 14%.
Countdown on to beet harvest
Stephen thinks the first of his fodder beet could be lifted in around six weeks’ time. The rest will be pulled as required. The dry weather affected the crop but it is now growing well. After consideration, he decided not to apply an insecticide as numbers of Silver Y Moth caterpillars in his crops weren’t high enough to justify an application.
His winter oilseed rape ground was ploughed and pressed with a Rexius roller and lime was applied at 2.0t/ac. Stephen sowed the variety Anastasia this week at 3.0kg/ha (65 seeds/m2).
“The harvest went very smoothly, it was relatively stress free and overall, yields were better than I expected.”
Richard Kane
Richard harvesting spring oilseed last week. So far the crop has averaged 1.6t/ac.
Limavady, Co Derry
After a number of wet weeks during August, the weather eventually settled down last week which allowed harvest work to recommence.
During those wet weeks, little harvest work was done and at one stage Richard had close to 200ac of straw waiting to be baled.
Some of this had to be turned. Straw in one field in particular had to be turned seven times in order to bale it as the ground needed to be cleared to host a Claas open day being held on Richard’s farm.
Good progress has been made over the past week.
Having started three weeks ago, the last of the winter wheat was cut on Thursday.
“Some of it was cut quite damp but it was getting to the stage where we had to get it in the shed,” explains Richard.
Around 10% of the crop didn’t survive the winter but remaining crops yielded well, at around 4.5t/ac. These were first wheat after WOSR.
Quality was high and the average moisture at the time of harvest was 22% but it has all now been dried to 15%. Around 25% of his winter wheat crop goes for seed and cleaning and dressing will commence soon. Straw yields averaged five 8x4x2.5 bales per acre.
Spring oilseed rape surprise
Forty acres of spring oilseed rape (SOSR) ripened faster than expected and as result, the crop was harvested last week. The remaining 70ac won’t be ready for another week. So far the crops did very well, averaging 1.6t/ac at 16% moisture with four bales per acre.
“We’re increasing our spring oilseed area, it’s a cheaper crop to grow than winter oilseed and the last three winter planting seasons have been challenging,” Richard remarks.
He cut a small amount of spring wheat this week for crimping but the main crop won’t be harvested for another week. Richard started cutting Scholar spring barley for seed this week and has so far averaged 3.25t/ac at 19-20% moisture. He sowed Sparrow WOSR (2.5kg/ha) last weekend and rolled it afterwards.
“We have another two weeks of harvesting left. I’d say were around one week behind were we would normally be.”
Read more
Harvest 18: harvest winding down but broken weather staggers progress
Harvest 18: broken weather slows completion of harvest
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