While travelling through east Donegal last week to a crop field walk organised by Clonleigh Co-Op, it was obvious that almost every possible machine was out on the land. This was one of the first days in the current dry spell when cultivation and planting were possible.

It was also obvious that this part of the country had taken a heavy pounding over winter and I passed one field which still had potatoes awaiting harvest.

In general, crops were more variable than in many other parts of the country because when the winter rain finished, intense spring rain did additional harm.

Many winter barley fields had big yellow patches present and these looked to be wet-related. Indeed, deep tramlines confirmed this in some fields.

While the majority of winter crops were good and full, some later-sown crops had suffered the double whammy of heavy rain post-planting plus slug damage. There were a few fields of wheat that were not pretty for these reasons and while plant population may be inadequate, many of these crops would not merit being torn up for replanting this late in spring.

Tillage farming in this part of the country presents additional challenges from weather at both planting and harvesting.

For this reason, some growers have brought planting dates forward, especially for winter barley and rape, and there are now crops planted in the second week of September. The challenge here is to get crops cut to get others planted.

Winter barley

Our crop walk took us into two different fields of winter barley. The first was sown to two varieties – Cassia and KWS Infinity. Seeding rate was 180kg/ha on 7 October.

The crops were sprayed with DFF and IPU shortly after emergence. This combination did a good job on weed control and the only weed that came through was fumitory. This had recently been sprayed with Cameo Max.

In the fields, the two varieties were quite distinct in colour and growth habit. The Cassia was a paler colour and showed a bit of rhyncho, but not bad.

Cassia carried a lesser canopy than the Infinity, which was quite noticeable. And given that canopy is a direct precursor of ear count, this will make for an interesting comparison during the season.

The KWS Infinity carried a much stronger colour, had more leaf and appeared to have greater canopy density at this point. It was almost as though it responded faster to the applied nitrogen or else it is a better forager.

The Infinity was cleaner and there was little or no sign of rhyncho, but it did have a lot of specking. These diamond-shaped lesions, which were present on both varieties, were old mildew lesions, but virtually all of the fluffy mycelium had been washed off.

Both crops had received almost 140 units N/ac and the Cassia in particular was slow to show the benefit. There had been quite a bit of lower leaf death as a consequence of the mild, wet winter.

Both varieties were past first node and virtually at second node, with the third-last leaf emerging.

Leaf development and emergence is likely to speed up as temperatures rise. The very early sown crops were now just about at third node stage, but one would need to check on the unfolded leaves, as early sown crops could have an additional leaf.

The second crop we looked at was also Cassia and it was slower and looked hungrier. This crop had more fumitory present and also some cleavers. Surviving weeds had yet to be sprayed and this crop had not moved far beyond first node. There was a bit more rhyncho in this field, but this is unlikely to have been the cause of leaf loss and there had been old mildew infection also.

Another crop of winter barley that I walked into was probably a six-row variety. This one also had a strong green colour and there were quite a few fumitory and cleaver plants in this crop. There was less sign of old mildew here, but there was quite a bit of rhyncho evident and also quite a number of water-stained lesions developing in the leaf, but these had not yet produced symptoms.