Tillage Management: watching the weather for fertiliser, planting and spraying

There is dry weather in the forecast. Land has a lot of drying to do before farmers can get out to the fields.

Siobhán Walsh

26 February 2025

Tillage Management: watching the weather for fertiliser, planting and spraying

Oilseed rape with a green area index of 3.

Weather: There looks to be good weather into next week. Most land is extremely wet following heavy rain over the last week and cannot be travelled on. Met Éireann confirmed this week that most soils were at least at field capacity while moderately drained soils were completely saturated. Once land becomes trafficable again, the priorities will be fertiliser on winter barley and oilseed rape and a tidy up of herbicide as well as ploughing for spring crops. Be careful if applying herbicides. Keep an eye on big changes in temperature from day to night.

Weather: There looks to be good weather into next week. Most land is extremely wet following heavy rain over the last week and cannot be travelled on.

Met Éireann confirmed this week that most soils were at least at field capacity while moderately drained soils were completely saturated. Once land becomes trafficable again, the priorities will be fertiliser on winter barley and oilseed rape and a tidy up of herbicide as well as ploughing for spring crops. Be careful if applying herbicides. Keep an eye on big changes in temperature from day to night.

Add in nutrition to keep plants healthy if you are travelling. Growth regulator will be needed in another week or two and this is another product that needs mild conditions to avoid stress on plants. Spring beans should be the priority if starting planting when land dries. Early March is an ideal time to plant the crop.

Fertiliser: When land dries out, winter oilseed rape and winter barley in particular will need fertiliser. Apply the first bit of nitrogen to barley in compound to provide P and K as well. Crops that received a small amount of nitrogen already will need to be topped up now. Forward winter wheat crops may be better left until the middle of March.

Seed: As the weather picks up, make sure you have your seed ordered for spring crops and get it delivered in time. Ask your merchant to calculate seed rates or ask them for the thousand grain weight (TGW) so you can calculate your own seed rate. To do this you need to multiply the TGW by the target plant population (300 plants/sq m) and divide this figure by the estimated establishment percentage (85%).

Payments: The Baling Assistance Payment is currently being issued so keep an eye out for it. The Department has increased the Protein Aid Scheme’s budget from €7m to €10m so there is scope for the payment to be higher than expected, but this won’t be known until the areas of protein crops are confirmed on BISS applications.

Peat soils: In recent weeks the Department has been telling farmers the new rules around GAEC 2 which relates to the protection of peatlands and wetlands under CAP and is part of cross-compliance or conditionality rules. The Department has told the Irish Farmers Journal that there are just over 8,000ha of arable land affected by this rule. Tillage farmers who are affected will be contacted by the Department. If you are affected then the following rules apply:

Shallow ploughing (up to 30cm depth) may take place annually for arable crops, which would allow for permanent pasture to be converted to tillage.

Farmers can continue on their usual farming practice on GAEC 2 land and where land has previously been drained farmers can continue to maintain those drains as always done.

New drainage or reclamation in GAEC 2 land parcels is subject to planning requirements which already apply in national law.