On Tuesday of this week David Lalor from Grangecon in Co Wicklow was announced as the winner of “Ireland’s hybrid barley crop of the year 2016”. The competition, which was put in place by Aidan Moore of Seed Technology Ltd, sought to showcase the best crops and the best husbandry used to push hybrid varieties to their limit in any given year.

Delighted with the award, David said: “Such awards provide acknowledgement of the efforts involved in crop production and the professionalism of growers and advisors”.

ADVERTISEMENT

Having grown a very high yield of over 4.6 t/ac at 15% moisture, David stated that his farm generally produces high winter barley yields. He grows a lot of six-row varieties but also grew a 4.47 t/ac crop of Cassia in 2016. This was his first time to grow a hybrid winter barley.

"Nothing out of the ordinary"

David said he does nothing out of the ordinary to get this high performance but he puts attention to detail as an important factor in every crop. The challenge is to protect the yield potential in a crop and to prevent setbacks that erode this potential.

Soil fertility is seen as very important. David’s land is mainly Index 3 for P and K, with most soil pHs above 6.8. He uses a range of trace elements, especially manganese, along with many other inputs.

“The winning crop cost €293/ac in variable costs”, David said. This was a 48 acre crop of Quadra which was sown on 29 September. It was drilled at 6.25 st/ac and treated with Redigo Deter for early aphid control. It received about 165 units of nitrogen per acre, mainly as urea, and part of this was applied between flag-leaf and ear emergence.

Teagasc advisor, Martin Bourke

David said that he is lucky to have the services of his Teagasc advisor, Martin Bourke. “It is important to be pushed hard and to have someone as dedicated as Martin to bounce ideas and concerns off", David commented.

David will certainly grow hybrid varieties again and he is looking forward to the challenge of pushing field yields much higher in coming years.

Three other regional winners also received awards. These were Thomas McGuinness from Meath who was advised by Seamus Shevlin, David Collier from Carlow who was advised by Michael Faule and Pat Shine from Tipperary who was advised by James Irish from Brett Brothers.