Kildalton College,
Co Kilkenny
The ground was squelching underfoot as Damien walked the fields on Monday morning. In September, 155mm of rain left the land saturated, but the college’s location and soil type should mean that the ground dries out relatively quickly.
The harvest finished up during the last good spell – both the spring wheat and spring beans were disappointing. The wheat yielded 2.5t/ac at 17% moisture content and 74kph.
The straw yield was poor too, at five round bales/ac. The beans yielded 1.5t/ac at 15% moisture.
Despite all the rain, it was the dry weather earlier in the year that did the damage to the beans’ yield.
The winter oilseed rape has a good stand and is growing quite strongly.
The Katamaran Turbo applied pre-emergence has kept good control of broadleaved weeds, and Falcon will be applied in the coming days to control volunteer winter barley and grassweeds. This has been planned for the past couple of weeks, but there were no opportunities to get the job done.
Slugs started to attack in the middle of September, especially on the headlands; an application of slug pellets has sorted this problem.
The DAFM covered maize trials are being harvested this week, with the uncovered section planned for next week. The crop looks quite good, with the uncovered varieties not quite at maturity just yet.
Damien had planned to grow cover crops where spring crops are planned for next year, but due to how late it was getting after harvest, it was decided to just cultivate the fields instead. The cover crops that were planted on 9 August have been slow enough to grow, and there is lots of volunteer barley in some fields.
No ground has been ploughed for winter cereals yet. Damien says it is still quite early for his area, and crops are often not planted until the second half of October.
There’s lots of time left to get work done, as long as the weather improves in the next few weeks.
Slane,
Co Meath
Saturated ground is commonplace in Meath after a very wet day on Saturday. Eamonn is not worried yet, with a promising long-term forecast for October.
Eamonn was one of the very few who managed to get some winter wheat planted recently.
The wet land has also prevented any cereals being planted too early and putting them at risk of BYDV and fungal diseases.
Eamonn does not want to rush into planting either, as low-lying areas have water lying in them, and while some fields are trafficable, the headlands would be destroyed with heavy machinery turning on them.
The weather has meant that a lot of yard jobs have been completed in the past week. Accounts are also being settled with the merchant.
The winter oilseed rape now has four to five true leaves and looks well. There have been no issues with slugs, surprisingly. The Clearfield crop is due its Cleranda herbicide shortly to control brassica weeds.
Eamonn did manage to plant 100ac of winter wheat two weeks ago. Champion and Graham were the chosen varieties. It was planted in the lightest, driest ground that Eamonn has after oilseed rape.
This slot was prioritised in order to maximise the benefits of the break crop, while the crop rotation can be impacted more by failing to plant winter wheat than winter barley.
An area of 90ac was ploughed and one-passed, and while Eamonn experimented with minimum tillage on 10ac, he says that it is definitely a year for the plough.
Slug pellets are always spread on wheat after oilseed rape, as Eamonn finds that there is always huge pressure from slugs in this slot.
While winter wheat is being prioritised, planning is also underway for winter barley. KWS Tardis and Belfry will be the varieties planted, with the six-row hybrid being placed in heavier ground, where it has outperformed the two-row in the past.
A pre-emergence herbicide will be applied to the barley if at all possible.
Limavady,
Co Derry
Land is wet in Derry after 130mm of rain in September, followed by another wet night on Sunday that scuppered plans for planting at the start of this week. Alistair still hopes to get some work done in the coming days if the rain stays away, with some silage still to be saved too.
Oilseed rape with companion crops of buckwheat, clover, sunflower and vetch. The volunteer cereals will be controlled with Kerb Flo in January.
The winter oilseed rape looks pretty good. There has been a lot of slug activity, but the rape plants are nearly completely unaffected, as the slugs seem to prefer the sunflowers that were sown as a companion crop. Alistair is happy that the sunflowers can be sacrificed to save the cash crop.
The winter rye is starting to green up, but unfortunately this is partly due to volunteer barley plants emerging. The rye was flat-rolled after sowing, as Alistair hopes to take two silage cuts of the red and white clover planted as companion crops after the rye is harvested. However, the flat-rolling has not been ideal in the wet weather of the past three weeks.
The winter barley is next to be planted, with some patience required until the fields are dry enough, especially as Alistair is trying very hard not to use the plough this autumn. He says if he can min-till all his crops this year, he can do it any year.
There will be 30ac of KWS Tardis planted for seed and 60ac of the 10-way variety mix that did very well this year. Half of the mix will also be planted with some oats included.
Alistair will be sowing a six-way winter wheat mix, consisting of KWS Dawsum, KWS Extase, Mayflower, Theodore, Champion, and Graham. Some of these varieties are very high yielding, while others have an excellent disease profile.
Alistair hopes this will help him achieve high yields, while reducing his fungicide applications.
An area of 50ac of winter wheat will be undersown with white clover, which will hopefully create a living mulch and continuous cover for the next few years.
Kildalton College,
Co Kilkenny
The ground was squelching underfoot as Damien walked the fields on Monday morning. In September, 155mm of rain left the land saturated, but the college’s location and soil type should mean that the ground dries out relatively quickly.
The harvest finished up during the last good spell – both the spring wheat and spring beans were disappointing. The wheat yielded 2.5t/ac at 17% moisture content and 74kph.
The straw yield was poor too, at five round bales/ac. The beans yielded 1.5t/ac at 15% moisture.
Despite all the rain, it was the dry weather earlier in the year that did the damage to the beans’ yield.
The winter oilseed rape has a good stand and is growing quite strongly.
The Katamaran Turbo applied pre-emergence has kept good control of broadleaved weeds, and Falcon will be applied in the coming days to control volunteer winter barley and grassweeds. This has been planned for the past couple of weeks, but there were no opportunities to get the job done.
Slugs started to attack in the middle of September, especially on the headlands; an application of slug pellets has sorted this problem.
The DAFM covered maize trials are being harvested this week, with the uncovered section planned for next week. The crop looks quite good, with the uncovered varieties not quite at maturity just yet.
Damien had planned to grow cover crops where spring crops are planned for next year, but due to how late it was getting after harvest, it was decided to just cultivate the fields instead. The cover crops that were planted on 9 August have been slow enough to grow, and there is lots of volunteer barley in some fields.
No ground has been ploughed for winter cereals yet. Damien says it is still quite early for his area, and crops are often not planted until the second half of October.
There’s lots of time left to get work done, as long as the weather improves in the next few weeks.
Slane,
Co Meath
Saturated ground is commonplace in Meath after a very wet day on Saturday. Eamonn is not worried yet, with a promising long-term forecast for October.
Eamonn was one of the very few who managed to get some winter wheat planted recently.
The wet land has also prevented any cereals being planted too early and putting them at risk of BYDV and fungal diseases.
Eamonn does not want to rush into planting either, as low-lying areas have water lying in them, and while some fields are trafficable, the headlands would be destroyed with heavy machinery turning on them.
The weather has meant that a lot of yard jobs have been completed in the past week. Accounts are also being settled with the merchant.
The winter oilseed rape now has four to five true leaves and looks well. There have been no issues with slugs, surprisingly. The Clearfield crop is due its Cleranda herbicide shortly to control brassica weeds.
Eamonn did manage to plant 100ac of winter wheat two weeks ago. Champion and Graham were the chosen varieties. It was planted in the lightest, driest ground that Eamonn has after oilseed rape.
This slot was prioritised in order to maximise the benefits of the break crop, while the crop rotation can be impacted more by failing to plant winter wheat than winter barley.
An area of 90ac was ploughed and one-passed, and while Eamonn experimented with minimum tillage on 10ac, he says that it is definitely a year for the plough.
Slug pellets are always spread on wheat after oilseed rape, as Eamonn finds that there is always huge pressure from slugs in this slot.
While winter wheat is being prioritised, planning is also underway for winter barley. KWS Tardis and Belfry will be the varieties planted, with the six-row hybrid being placed in heavier ground, where it has outperformed the two-row in the past.
A pre-emergence herbicide will be applied to the barley if at all possible.
Limavady,
Co Derry
Land is wet in Derry after 130mm of rain in September, followed by another wet night on Sunday that scuppered plans for planting at the start of this week. Alistair still hopes to get some work done in the coming days if the rain stays away, with some silage still to be saved too.
Oilseed rape with companion crops of buckwheat, clover, sunflower and vetch. The volunteer cereals will be controlled with Kerb Flo in January.
The winter oilseed rape looks pretty good. There has been a lot of slug activity, but the rape plants are nearly completely unaffected, as the slugs seem to prefer the sunflowers that were sown as a companion crop. Alistair is happy that the sunflowers can be sacrificed to save the cash crop.
The winter rye is starting to green up, but unfortunately this is partly due to volunteer barley plants emerging. The rye was flat-rolled after sowing, as Alistair hopes to take two silage cuts of the red and white clover planted as companion crops after the rye is harvested. However, the flat-rolling has not been ideal in the wet weather of the past three weeks.
The winter barley is next to be planted, with some patience required until the fields are dry enough, especially as Alistair is trying very hard not to use the plough this autumn. He says if he can min-till all his crops this year, he can do it any year.
There will be 30ac of KWS Tardis planted for seed and 60ac of the 10-way variety mix that did very well this year. Half of the mix will also be planted with some oats included.
Alistair will be sowing a six-way winter wheat mix, consisting of KWS Dawsum, KWS Extase, Mayflower, Theodore, Champion, and Graham. Some of these varieties are very high yielding, while others have an excellent disease profile.
Alistair hopes this will help him achieve high yields, while reducing his fungicide applications.
An area of 50ac of winter wheat will be undersown with white clover, which will hopefully create a living mulch and continuous cover for the next few years.
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