Brian Crowley, Ballycotton, Co Cork
Crops are looking “fairly well in general” in Cork, especially the winter crops according to Brian. They enjoyed the hot weather last week and the rain this week is no bad thing “as long as it knows when to stop”.
The flowers are nearly all gone from the winter oilseed rape, with just a few left in the tramlines. It is well into podfill at this stage and it loved the recent weather.
The winter wheat received its T2 fungicide recently. The lower leaves have septoria on them but the upper leaves have remained clean. Brian is happy enough with this in his high septoria pressure area. It is very rare that there is no septoria on a crop. Champion seems to be slightly behind other varieties. The winter barley is filling away and Brian says he could be cutting very early in July if the crop gets good weather. The Littoral variety is especially early, helped by early planting.
The spring beans are just beginning to flower and Brian was hoping for a break in the rain to get a fungicide onto the crop.
The spring cereals look well. The spring barley received Navura and Comet 200 recently and is starting to push on. The spring oats were planted late, 24 April, but seem to be going well too. They received CeCeCe 750, Universe, Cameo Max, and Yara Crop Boost on 28 May.
The fodder beet got its first herbicide spray on 23 May. Brian planted a smart beet so Conviso One herbicide can be applied. The beet is well established but there are one or two plants still underground as the soil slightly capped after sowing.
The weather this week should help to soften the soil and get the crop up and going. About a third of the beet is used on-farm each year and the rest is sold.
Martin Ennis, Naul, Co Dublin
The warm, dry weather was tempting for Martin to make some May hay but he decided the grass was still too green and young. He says that if the hot weather had arrived a week later, he would have made the hay.
Martin applied Skyway Xpro and 40l/ha of N16 once the winter oilseed rape had finished flowering. He finds the extra bit of nitrogen provides a yield boost. The crop looks very well and is quite thick.
On the other hand, the winter barley is on the thin side. Martin says this is a consequence of not being able to travel with fertiliser early in the spring.
The T2 fungicide spray was applied to the winter wheat two weeks ago and it has now headed out. Martin says it is his best-looking crop so far this year. There was a bit of rust earlier this spring but it has been taken care of. The T2 spray consisted of Jessico One, Jettano and folpet.
Martin says the Inatreq in Jessico One is the best fungicide available but for a second year in a row he thinks it damaged some of the O-rings in his sprayer nozzles. This was despite doing everything right, including applying 250l/ha of water, rinsing the tank with 300l of clean water every time the tank was emptied and not leaving any spray in the sprayer overnight.
The spring barley is moving along and will just get one fungicide at the paintbrush stage.
The open maize is at the three-leaf stage. Martin says it has got off to a great start and the heat last week was really driving growth. He will need to clean up some weeds in the crop next week.
Elsewhere on the farm, the sheds are nearly empty with just one load of barley left to leave the farm. The spray cans and plastic bags have been tidied up and recycled too as the farm begins to gear up for harvest.
Christopher Gill, Caledon Estate, Co Tyrone
Christopher made use of the fine weather last week, harvesting 400ac of silage between Monday and Wednesday before applying slurry to these fields towards the end of the week. The showers that arrived on Saturday and the rain that followed was welcome to wash this in and push crops on even more.
Once the silage was in, Christopher was busy spraying a T2 fungicide spray on his winter wheat too. It received Provtyo XE at 1.5l/ha, Arizona at 1.5l/ha, Zoxis at 0.75l/ha, and Magnitech trace elements at 2.5l/ha. The wheat looks good and remains mostly clean of disease.
Christopher is not sure if it was the wet weather earlier in the spring or the recent hot weather, but the wheat is a good bit shorter than usual; he would prefer if it was a bit taller and bulkier as most of it is destined for wholecrop.
The rye and triticale are also destined for wholecrop. The triticale may need one more rust spray depending on the weather in the coming weeks so Christopher will keep a close eye on it while the rye received its final fungicide on 15 May. Christopher will make a decision on whether the winter barley is wholecropped or brought to harvest in a few weeks, with the decision depending on the demand for barley grain and markets available at the time.
The winter oilseed rape is well into podfill now and looks quite healthy with a decent number of pods. The maize sown under plastic is at the four-leaf stage, with the uncovered maize just behind it with three-leaves emerged.
Christopher says that conditions have been ideal for the open crop and he is quite pleased with it so far. It received Wing-P as a pre-emergence herbicide but it will require a follow-up application too.