Padraig Donohoe -
Curracloe,
Co Wexford
It’s all go in Curracloe once again. After last week’s rain, settled weather has allowed the team at Curracloe Farm to make good progress with autumn planting.
Their potato harvest finished at the end of September. Despite staggered harvest pace at times, they got a decent run to finish the harvest in good conditions. Typical harvest days commenced at 8am and finished around 10pm.
Padraig cultivating stubble ground with his John Deere 8360 on tracks.
They were happy with the performance of the potato crops this year, and didn’t experience the reduced yields and skin finish issues seen elsewhere in the country. The last crop to be harvested was Padraig’s Kiebitz crisping variety, which went straight to storage.
They haven’t harvested their carrot crop just yet, and there isn’t significant pressure to get them out, he explains.
Winter sowing
Winter sowing began last Sunday. Padraig explains that they wouldn’t normally sow any earlier on his farm, as the crops could get too advanced as they head into the winter. This year, they are aiming to plant around 130ac of barley, 55ac of wheat and 20ac of oats.
For stubble ground, they use a John Deere 8360RT on tracks to pull a 6m Horsch cultivator. On average, they’ll do 14ac/hr. They then drill into the cultivated ground using a 6m Vaderstad Spirit 600C pulled by a Fendt 828.
After potato ground however, they generally subsoil the fields straight after the harvester, making it ready for drilling.
This year, they are sowing Infinity winter barley at a rate of 207kg/ha. The lighter ground is generally rolled straight after drilling. They are aiming to apply a pre-emerge herbicide consisting of Navigate (0.3l/ha) and DFF (0.1l/ha).
They have yet to decide what variety of winter oats to grow this year
They are sowing Costello winter wheat at a rate of 205kg/ha. Once drilled, the crop will receive a pre-emerge herbicide of Stomp Aqua (2.5l/ha) and DFF (0.25l/ha). They have yet to decide what variety of winter oats to grow this year.
Elsewhere, they are busy servicing machinery and cutting hedges. All of the potato irrigation equipment must be cleaned, with water blown out from the lines before parking indoors for winter.
Jonathan Kelly -
Limavady,
Co Derry
Last Tuesday was the first time in two weeks it stopped raining. When talking to Jonathan this week, he was in his digger making channels to let the surface water in fields drain away.
Despite this however, Jonathan explains that the ground underneath is surprisingly dry and he expected to be back sowing again in the second half of the week.
Jonathan subsoiling some dryer ground this week in anticipation of ploughing
Jonathan started sowing winter cereals last month, and so far has 120ac of winter barley wheat in the ground. He intends on drilling a further 280ac and will need around 10 good days to do so.
On his sandy soils, he established the crop via minimum tillage and rolled the fields after. On heavier ground, he used his plough and one-pass drill
This year, he opted to grow Orwell winter barley, drilling at a rate of 185kg/ha. It was one of his better performing varieties last year. On his sandy soils, he established the crop via minimum tillage and rolled the fields after. On heavier ground, he used his plough and one-pass drill. Jonathan applied a pre-emerge herbicide of Pontus (0.5l/ha) and DFF (0.2l/ha), primarily for grass weed control.
He is growing Graham and Extase winter wheat again this year. The crop was drilled at 185kg/ha, mostly using the plough and one-pass system. It will receive a post-emerge herbicide over the coming week.
WOSR
His winter oilseed rape is looking very good, if not a little advanced, explains Jonathan. The crop received a herbicide application of Falcon (0.8l/ha) and an application of slug pellets in areas of high risk.
So far, Jonathan has been concentrating on planting his heavier ground. The majority of what is left to be drilled is on sandy ground, meaning he’ll be able to make good progress over the next week, as ground conditions will improve quickly.
Jonathan finished his cereal harvest last month. His spring barley crops averaged around 3t/ac
He is aiming to harvest his maize crop this week, all of which is destined for a local anaerobic digestion plant. He is also applying digestate from this plant on hungry winter ground at a rate of 3,000g/ac before the deadline this week.
Jonathan finished his cereal harvest last month. His spring barley crops averaged around 3t/ac. This is the best crop he has grown to-date, but he thinks the poor harvest weather may have impacted his crops’ specific weights.
Colm Farrell -
Navan,
Co Meath
The results of 50mm of rainfall over 12 days meant that Colm had to leave ploughed ground to dry for a day before he could start drilling.
“It often meant that we had to plough in the morning and sow in the evening” explains Colm.
“This meant we might have only got sowing for five to six hours of the day, but at least crops are going into good seedbeds,” he continued.
Colm drillng winter barley with his Horsch KR 4m drill with a front mounted hopper.
Currently, he is around 65% through with winter wheat, having started sowing the variety Conros at 148kg/ha at the end of September. The seed had a TGW of 48g. He then moved to the variety Costello, where seed rates had increased to 170kg/ha, as the TGW of the seed was 60g.
Colm is aiming to roll the wheat crops drilled into oilseed rape stubble. He noted a high amount of slugs in the stubble before drilling.
He had a great mind for machinery and I often ran things passed him – he was a true gentleman
He started sowing Cassia winter barley last week, drilling at a rate of 220kg/ha with his one-pass into ploughed ground. Colm uses a Horsch KR 4m drill with a front-mounted hopper.
He bought this drill last year on the back of advice from Jimmy Whyte, who sadly passed away last week. Jimmy was a member of the well-known Whyte family, who farm in Naul, Dublin.
“He had a great mind for machinery and I often ran things passed him – he was a true gentleman,” remarks Colm.
Colm is around 50% through with winter barley planting. He is aiming to apply a post-emerge herbicide of Firebird and DFF.
His winter oilseed rape crop is coming along very well, although there is a big difference in development between the two crops, which were planted 12 days apart. If the weather cools over the coming week, he will apply a herbicide application of AstroKerb.
Colm harvested his spring beans last month and he was disappointed with the results. The crop yielded 1.7-2t/ac at between 19.5%-23% moisture. He noted that the seed size was particularly small and puts this down to drought earlier in the season.
Padraig Donohoe -
Curracloe,
Co Wexford
It’s all go in Curracloe once again. After last week’s rain, settled weather has allowed the team at Curracloe Farm to make good progress with autumn planting.
Their potato harvest finished at the end of September. Despite staggered harvest pace at times, they got a decent run to finish the harvest in good conditions. Typical harvest days commenced at 8am and finished around 10pm.
Padraig cultivating stubble ground with his John Deere 8360 on tracks.
They were happy with the performance of the potato crops this year, and didn’t experience the reduced yields and skin finish issues seen elsewhere in the country. The last crop to be harvested was Padraig’s Kiebitz crisping variety, which went straight to storage.
They haven’t harvested their carrot crop just yet, and there isn’t significant pressure to get them out, he explains.
Winter sowing
Winter sowing began last Sunday. Padraig explains that they wouldn’t normally sow any earlier on his farm, as the crops could get too advanced as they head into the winter. This year, they are aiming to plant around 130ac of barley, 55ac of wheat and 20ac of oats.
For stubble ground, they use a John Deere 8360RT on tracks to pull a 6m Horsch cultivator. On average, they’ll do 14ac/hr. They then drill into the cultivated ground using a 6m Vaderstad Spirit 600C pulled by a Fendt 828.
After potato ground however, they generally subsoil the fields straight after the harvester, making it ready for drilling.
This year, they are sowing Infinity winter barley at a rate of 207kg/ha. The lighter ground is generally rolled straight after drilling. They are aiming to apply a pre-emerge herbicide consisting of Navigate (0.3l/ha) and DFF (0.1l/ha).
They have yet to decide what variety of winter oats to grow this year
They are sowing Costello winter wheat at a rate of 205kg/ha. Once drilled, the crop will receive a pre-emerge herbicide of Stomp Aqua (2.5l/ha) and DFF (0.25l/ha). They have yet to decide what variety of winter oats to grow this year.
Elsewhere, they are busy servicing machinery and cutting hedges. All of the potato irrigation equipment must be cleaned, with water blown out from the lines before parking indoors for winter.
Jonathan Kelly -
Limavady,
Co Derry
Last Tuesday was the first time in two weeks it stopped raining. When talking to Jonathan this week, he was in his digger making channels to let the surface water in fields drain away.
Despite this however, Jonathan explains that the ground underneath is surprisingly dry and he expected to be back sowing again in the second half of the week.
Jonathan subsoiling some dryer ground this week in anticipation of ploughing
Jonathan started sowing winter cereals last month, and so far has 120ac of winter barley wheat in the ground. He intends on drilling a further 280ac and will need around 10 good days to do so.
On his sandy soils, he established the crop via minimum tillage and rolled the fields after. On heavier ground, he used his plough and one-pass drill
This year, he opted to grow Orwell winter barley, drilling at a rate of 185kg/ha. It was one of his better performing varieties last year. On his sandy soils, he established the crop via minimum tillage and rolled the fields after. On heavier ground, he used his plough and one-pass drill. Jonathan applied a pre-emerge herbicide of Pontus (0.5l/ha) and DFF (0.2l/ha), primarily for grass weed control.
He is growing Graham and Extase winter wheat again this year. The crop was drilled at 185kg/ha, mostly using the plough and one-pass system. It will receive a post-emerge herbicide over the coming week.
WOSR
His winter oilseed rape is looking very good, if not a little advanced, explains Jonathan. The crop received a herbicide application of Falcon (0.8l/ha) and an application of slug pellets in areas of high risk.
So far, Jonathan has been concentrating on planting his heavier ground. The majority of what is left to be drilled is on sandy ground, meaning he’ll be able to make good progress over the next week, as ground conditions will improve quickly.
Jonathan finished his cereal harvest last month. His spring barley crops averaged around 3t/ac
He is aiming to harvest his maize crop this week, all of which is destined for a local anaerobic digestion plant. He is also applying digestate from this plant on hungry winter ground at a rate of 3,000g/ac before the deadline this week.
Jonathan finished his cereal harvest last month. His spring barley crops averaged around 3t/ac. This is the best crop he has grown to-date, but he thinks the poor harvest weather may have impacted his crops’ specific weights.
Colm Farrell -
Navan,
Co Meath
The results of 50mm of rainfall over 12 days meant that Colm had to leave ploughed ground to dry for a day before he could start drilling.
“It often meant that we had to plough in the morning and sow in the evening” explains Colm.
“This meant we might have only got sowing for five to six hours of the day, but at least crops are going into good seedbeds,” he continued.
Colm drillng winter barley with his Horsch KR 4m drill with a front mounted hopper.
Currently, he is around 65% through with winter wheat, having started sowing the variety Conros at 148kg/ha at the end of September. The seed had a TGW of 48g. He then moved to the variety Costello, where seed rates had increased to 170kg/ha, as the TGW of the seed was 60g.
Colm is aiming to roll the wheat crops drilled into oilseed rape stubble. He noted a high amount of slugs in the stubble before drilling.
He had a great mind for machinery and I often ran things passed him – he was a true gentleman
He started sowing Cassia winter barley last week, drilling at a rate of 220kg/ha with his one-pass into ploughed ground. Colm uses a Horsch KR 4m drill with a front-mounted hopper.
He bought this drill last year on the back of advice from Jimmy Whyte, who sadly passed away last week. Jimmy was a member of the well-known Whyte family, who farm in Naul, Dublin.
“He had a great mind for machinery and I often ran things passed him – he was a true gentleman,” remarks Colm.
Colm is around 50% through with winter barley planting. He is aiming to apply a post-emerge herbicide of Firebird and DFF.
His winter oilseed rape crop is coming along very well, although there is a big difference in development between the two crops, which were planted 12 days apart. If the weather cools over the coming week, he will apply a herbicide application of AstroKerb.
Colm harvested his spring beans last month and he was disappointed with the results. The crop yielded 1.7-2t/ac at between 19.5%-23% moisture. He noted that the seed size was particularly small and puts this down to drought earlier in the season.
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