Andy Doyle

A year for hope

Hope springs eternal and more so for tillage farmers than most others. We cultivate, plant, manage and reap in the hope of securing a reasonable return for our efforts. Yield is outside of the control of the grower and price is unknown for at least a portion of the crop.

We operate in an era of high and increasing costs and we feel trapped by the necessity for crop protection inputs. The introduction of integrated pest management forces a new layer of recording on growers but also potential opportunities.

To my mind, there is considerable potential in IPM techniques to help reduce the severity of the problems we are forced to tackle. This has two definite consequences.

The first is to reduce the severity of the problem. Examples include the long-term benefit of decreasing weed burden. While it is impossible to get rid of a species completely, getting wild oat density down from 10/m2 to 1/10m2 allows one to grow oats again. And later planting, plus a stale seedbed, will further decrease infestation pressure.

The second is to help eliminate certain inputs completely. Stubble cultivation immediately post-harvest using techniques to allow the soil to dry out will help destroy the future generation of slugs and leather-jackets, thus eliminating the need for chemical control measures. Variety, sowing date, seed rate and nitrogen management can all contribute to lessen the need for plant growth regulation.

IPM should now receive intensive discussion at group meetings. It has the potential to open up new opportunities and cost savings on farms.

But many potential benefits are not a quick fix and so overall husbandry must be planned over time to achieve specific objectives. Growers already use practices which utilise various aspects of IPM but there is scope to reap further benefits and these are most achievable through discussion and observation. Take the initiative – save the cost. We begin 2014 with crops in generally better condition than last year. Our soils got a welcome breather from the incessant wet of previous summers and the dry conditions helped open them up.

Winter crops are in much better condition with all of them well established. But some have since suffered from wet patches. But they are growing well and look to carry good potential as we begin this husbandry season.

Spring crops are in a different place this season. This time last year, I wrote: “We have seen late springs before and crops can catch up and we have also seen early springs disappoint.” So while there is very little drilling done as we entered April, it remains very important to plant crops in the best possible conditions. This helps to maximise their potential and last year showed that yield potential is more related to season than planting date.

One year later and we have even more worries to contend with in terms of pesticide resistance. The lowering sensitivity to triazole actives has not worsened but these isolates have become very prominent everywhere. This adds to the challenge of disease control and increases its cost, but thankfully control is still possible with sensible rates and use. Of even greater concern is the finding of net blotch isolates that show decreased sensitivity to SDHI actives.

While some isolates with reduced sensitivity were found in 2012, the 2013 findings came from air sampling in France, Germany and Britain. This means that a level of resistance is already on the move.

There was no sampling done in Ireland but we need to be extra cautious and make every effort to protect our existing tools with sensible protection from triazoles and the inclusion of chlorothalonil with every application. The efficacy of pyrethroid insecticides is also threatened by the presence of partial resistance in aphids. And should this situation disimprove further, there are very few alternative actives that can be used and even fewer that are relatively target specific.