What to do with cover crops this January

Cover crops planted under ACRES or the Farming for Water programme can be destroyed from 1 January. You can lightly graze these cover crops if you like, but they must be grazed in a manner that does not damage soil health.

Many of these crops will not be suitable for grazing at this stage as they will be in flower or will already have flowered and these flowers can be harmful to livestock.

If you are happy that there are no problem weeds in your fields then you could roll these crops in the frost. In hard frost, the roller can break the stems on these plants and roll them into the ground.

Crops had a long-growing season this year and got off to a great start, so many are quite bulky. These crops could be hard to cultivate in or plough down so rolling in the frost does help to break down crops.

You can also spray off these crops with glyphosate. You should use a high rate of glyphosate if you fear there are weeds to be controlled, particularly grass weeds. It is also a difficult time of year for glyphosate to work as temperatures are low and weather is not great for application. You need to apply a herbicide at the best time possible for application.

Some people may roll crops and spray later as well.

Grass weeds

In November, the Irish Farmers Journal reported that blackgrass, wild oats, brome and some other grasses were found in some cover crop seeds. Many farmers got in contact to say that they feared that these weed seeds were in their cover crop mixes. If you think that your seed contained these weed seeds then you should spray off your cover crop with glyphosate to reduce the risk of their spread.

If the weed seeds were in the seed then they may not have germinated straight away. These weeds could germinate in the spring crop or the winter crop or in a few years’ time. These fields will have to be watched. Next season, when planting cover crops, only choose Higher Voluntary Standard seed.

Some cover crops will start to fade over the winter from frost and rain and some farmers will choose to just go straight in and cultivate or plough. If crops are very heavy this will be difficult. If you have grass weeds you need to be vigilant so a herbicide should be used.