Young farmers are a rarity. Young tillage farmers are even more of a rarity. Isaac Wheelock from near Enniscorthy is bucking the trend. The Wexford man was runner-up in the FBD Young Farmer of the Year Competition in association with Macra this year, a great achievement in a competition dominated by livestock farmers.

When the Irish Farmers Journal visited Wheelock’s farm in early November, Christmas trees were filling up the farmyard where the family will be busy in the coming weeks with customers coming to pick out their locally-grown tree, the growing of which has taken plenty of management throughout the year.

Christmas trees provide another income to the farm and create a buzz for a few weeks of the year with local customers, but it is out in the tillage fields that Isaac is most at home.

It’s a difficult time for his sector. Grain prices are low, but he remains positive and optimistic for what he can do on his farm. This year Isaac says he was lucky. He had exceptionally good crops which pulled his income up in what is an extremely difficult year on grain prices.

Most will agree there is a lot of luck in growing crops. Every time you put the drill in the field it’s a gamble from weather to price, but you can de-risk the business with good management and decision making.

“Overall, we had 100ac of wheat and we averaged 5t/ac, so that went from 4.6t/ac at the lowest up to 5.5t/ac.”

Isaac said planting all of the wheat after break crops is a big factor for yield.

“Timing was key and it is key for everything. That’s probably one thing I have learned in the last couple of years, since I’ve taken over the business. It’s not a matter of going out and doing a job because you have to do it. There’s a reason you’re doing it. There’s a reason you have to do it at a certain time.”

The plan for next year is to build on some of those high yields. Isaac has one field of winter wheat that he will push a little bit further and try new things with. He might spend a bit more on it, but he hopes to learn something along the way and decide what increases in spend are worth it.

“I’ve been told that when you plant a crop of wheat it has the potential to do 10t/ac,” he said.

He might not make it to 10t/ac, but he is going to try and hit a higher yield than last year.

So far, that KWS Scope winter wheat has received a herbicide of Firebird Met, an aphicide and Root Boost to support root growth.

The field has been in spring barley, spring oats, winter oilseed rape and now winter wheat. The land is in fantastic condition. It received dung in three out of the last five years.

Soil health

Isaac has travelled and sown crops in the large expanse of western Australia and got plenty of sunshine in the land down under. Land in those parts is all big fields. In Wexford there is demand on every field – big or small. This is one of the biggest challenges Isaac says he faces. At current rental and leasing prices he can’t expand his farm.

“The way the whole thing is gone at the minute it is impossible to get land. For a young farmer, I find it very hard to grow as a farmer.

“So, one thing I’ve taken into consideration is my soil health and getting the best out of every acre that I have. That’s where we’re going with it.”

Soil health is important to Isaac. His father, who now runs the cattle enterprise on the farm, started minimum-tillage about 25 years ago. This, he thinks, has played a big role in improving soil structure, but he is not afraid to use the plough where a rest is needed.

He is growing cover crops, applying farmyard manure and slurry from the cattle enterprise. Break crops are important for soil health too and straw is being chopped. As we travelled across a field of scope winter wheat after rape, where the stalks were chopped we could see earthworm holes all across it.

We dug down into cover crop fields and the soil was crumbly and dry. The mixed cover crop was doing a good job with deep tap roots and small shallow roots helping to keep soil in good order and prepare it for the winter ahead.

Cropping plans

Integral winter barley was planted in mid-October and it was looking well. It’s BYDV tolerant and Isaac was not planning on an aphicide application if at all possible. It has been sprayed for weeds. Oilseed rape is the other winter crop.

It was up and away and one field we visited was hit with clubroot. It was actually a field where Isaac had done a trial. He shut off every second coulter on the seed drill and reduced the seed rate to try and improve branching.

However, from the middle of October the crop started to disappear. The roots are stunted and club root is clearly evident. The field had been in wheat and continuous maize. It hasn’t been in oilseed rap for about 10 years and while there was a cover crop in the field over that time it would have been considered a safe slot.

It was extremely disappointing to look at when such effort and cost had been invested to sow the crop.

While Isaac said winter crops are looking in good in general, apart from an odd spot where soil was possibly too fine, no one will have perfect crops and he said it is important to share the good and the bad.

Water quality

Isaac has a nice area of cover crop planted under the Farming for Water Pilot. He’s in the Slaney catchment, one that garners a lot of attention for water quality. I asked if the talk around water quality and the focus on farming get to him and if it was hard to listen to.

“I don’t take any offence to water quality because I know I’m doing my bit. Everyone has to do their best inside their own gate. That way as a group of people it gets better. I think the water quality has improved in Wexford. There obviously is a clear indication that things are working and you’re not going to see results over night either.”

Isaac noted that the damage was done to water quality over a long period of time and it could take a generation to improve things.

“I know that I’m doing everything that I can. From driving around the roads here you can see that there are loads of cover crops in. Everybody is doing it. It just takes a bit of time to see the results of these things.”

He also noted that it is not always possible to get cover crops planted and planted in good order. This year provided an exceptional opportunity to plant crops and get good yields.

Looking ahead

In the coming season Isaac plans to look more at agronomy and crop nutrition. He will take leaf analysis on a regular basis and try to feed crops at the right time.

“We can do nothing about price. Yield is something I can do something about. That’s where I’m focused on,” he said.

While price is an issue and there is little can be done in some respects Isaac did say that Irish grain needs to be supported. He wants to see a minimum inclusion rate of Irish grain in animal feed rations to support the tillage sector and make the whole farming sector more sustainable.

He plans on cutting back on spring barley acres, but noted that any spring crops will be going in after a cover crop which should benefit the crop from a soil health and nutrition point of view.

He has dung to go out on those crops, as well and slurry to be applied ahead of beans. Over the winter he will walk crops regularly and see where drainage work is needed.

When out walking we came across a spring that had not been noticed before.

Isaac says walking crops is essential for management decisions,but added that “it’s good for the head to get out and walk around”

You can Listen to Isaac on the Tillage Podcast here.