Ploughing and spraying

The first day farmers can plough or cultivate land for spring crops is 1 December. The weather at present is for showery conditions, but the rules allow you to plough or spray off weeds from then on. Farmers can plough land or spray with glyphosate to control weeds and volunteers from 1 December.

If land was not cultivated under nitrates rules after harvest, then this land cannot be cultivated or sprayed until 1 February unless a crop is going to be planted as soon as possible. Anyone with catch crops under ACRES cannot graze, spray off or cultivate cover crops until 1 January.

Catch crops

Anyone grazing catch crops needs to adhere to the cross-compliance rules. You need a 3m buffer around the field which does not have a catch crop planted. If there is a watercourse, you need to leave a 6m buffer.

If you have a stocking rate of over 170kg/ha then you need to fence the watercourse at 1.5m. All farmers need to have a lie-back area available to the stock. The lie-back area needs to be 30% of the total area being grazed, should be cultivated and must have a green cover or be in grass.

Spraying

Herbicides on winter cereals can be applied throughout the winter in cold weather. However, it is best to do it in good conditions.

Herbicides should not be applied at times when hard frost is due. There is plenty of showery weather in the forecast, so mind your tramlines for the season ahead and only travel if conditions are suitable.

Soil sampling

It is still a good time to soil sample. Ground conditions are good in many places for taking samples. Sampling now means the results will be back to you in December some time, and you can get a nutrient management plan in place for the farm for the year ahead.

Straw

Here you can see details of straw payments. The Straw Incorporation Measure payments are expected to issue from 11 December, and the Baling Assistance Payment is due in early 2025. Inspections of the Baling Assistance Payment are ongoing, with geo-tagged photos required.

ITLUS conference

There may still be time to sign up for the Irish Tillage and Land Use Society’s conference. It is on next Thursday, 5 December in the Clanard Court Hotel, Athy, Co Kildare. You can pre-book by emailing itlussec50@gmail.com. The conference, including lunch, costs €50 for members and €80 for non-members. Student non-members cost €30.

Home delivery

The Irish Farmers Journal is currently running an offer on our home delivery service. You can get the Irish Farmers Journal delivered to your door every Thursday and get access to articles online for €199 per year.

If you purchase this you get a free farm bucket of merchandise worth €110. There are different subscription offers available. You can call the office on 01-4199525 for more information or view the offers online at farmersjournal.ie/subscribe