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All the spring cereal planting has now been completed and crops are progressing well. The focus now shifts to spring crop husbandry tasks as fertiliser, trace elements, aphicides and herbicides take priority. Winter crop potential looks promising and disease pressure remains relatively low.
Busherstown, Co Carlow
Heavy ground was very slow to dry out in Carlow, explains Larry. Sowing was completed over a three-week period in a number of very busy bursts. Spring crops now vary between emergence and tillering.
Spring barley was sown at 180kg/ha. Emerged crops are doing well and have received all of their nitrogen. P and K, as well as 50kg N/ha was incorporated into the seedbed. Spring barley was emerging within seven to eight days of sowing and crops were brought up to 160kg N/ha within 10 days of sowing.
Last week, some of the crops received an application of Cameo MAX (40g/ha), Galaxy (0.8l/ha) and Mantrac Pro (0.4l/ha). Part of the farm is low in manganese and, with late sowing, applying trace elements to those crops was a priority. As soon as crops hit the four-leaf stage they were sprayed with Sparviero (50ml/ha).
His Fanfare beans are coming along well and are around 4in tall. There is some leaf notching evident but not enough to warrant treatment.
Gate closed on winter barley
The heads on his Belfry and Cassia winter barley are almost fully emerged. Last week they received their head spray consisting of Ceriax (1.5l/ha) and Bravo (1.0l/ha). Larry opted for a two-spray programme as both varieties remained clean throughout the season.
The flag leaf is out on his Barra winter oats and they remain remarkably clean. Larry hasn’t applied a T2 yet and is keeping an eye on the crop. If it remains clean he will use a two spray programme this year.
The flag leaf on his winter wheat is nearly fully out and Larry plans to apply Librax (2.0l/ha) and a chlorothalonil spray (1.0l/ha) next week. Like many crops, septoria is present in the lower leaves. Some 30-40kg N/ha was applied last week on crops following oats to bring the total up to 230kg N/ha. Out of all varieties, Bennington appears to be the cleanest.
“Spring crops are coming along well, but you’d forget that it is the second half of May. They should be a lot further on at this stage,” he said.
Clonmel, Co Tipperary
Conditions eventually settled down in Tipperary over the past number of weeks, which allowed John to complete his spring sowing.
He started on 30 April, the latest ever start to spring barley sowing he can recall. His Planet and Paustien spring barley was sown at 175kg/ha. “I didn’t go crazy heavy on the seeding rate because it’ll be a short growing season and I didn’t want it too thick. I’d rather have a standing crop.”
Crops were sown in good conditions and the last of the spring barley was sown last week. Crops were sown with 370kg/ha of 10:8:21 plus trace elements. They were then brought up to 130kg N/ha last week using SulCAN. “I’m taking a conservative view on my spring barley. It’s not the type of year where we can push the crops,” John said. Crops will also receive between 90-120kg/ha of Muriate of Potash as well as an application of Ninja aphicide (50ml/ha) this week.
John sowed Rosalinda fodder beet on 8 May into good seedbeds using a contractor with a six-row web feeder planter. John sows beet at 17cm seed spacing on 55cm rows. Crops are just now emerging. 500kg/ha of 8:5:18+Boron was incorporated into the seedbed before drilling. He rolls his beet after drilling. One field of spring barley and the fodder beet have been treated for slugs.
John is very optimistic about winter crops. Winter barley has grown a lot in the past two weeks and looks well. Last week he applied the T3 spray consisting of Ceriax (1.7l/ha) and Bravo (1.0l/ha) and trace elements.
His winter wheat’s T2 spray will be applied this week as the flag leaf is nearly fully out.
Johns T2 spray will consist of Librax (1.8l/ha) and Bravo (1.0l/ha). The crop was brought up to 225kg N/ha last week.
Septoria has not moved to the upper leaves yet. John will also apply his T3 spray in winter oats this week using Elatus Era (0.7l/ha) plus Epso Combitop.
“We were making first-cut silage on 18 May and sowing spring barley simultaneously. This is the first time this has ever happened,” he said.
Cloon Co Donegal
After a reasonable run of weather in Donegal, Jamie has nearly caught up with potato planting. Temperatures were a bit cooler than normal, especially at night, which meant that spring cereals and potatoes have been slower to get away.
Jamie finished sowing spring barley three weeks ago and all crops have emerged and are doing well. Around 30-40kg N/ha was incorporated into the seedbed before sowing. Later this week, spring barley will be topped up to 140-150kg N/ha while spring oats will be topped off at 120-130kg N/ha using either Urea + S or CAN + S. “I am worried that crops may move through the growth stages too fast and not get a chance to fully tiller,” explains Jamie
Aphids are present so crops will receive the aphicide Karate (50ml/ha) this week. Spring crops will also receive an application of CCC (1.0l/ha) and Manganese (2.0l/ha). The oat spray will include Ally (34g/ha) and Reaper (0.7l/ha) and will be delayed a week.
Potato planting nearly complete
Jamie is down to his last 40ac of potatoes to plant which is mostly either salad or seed potatoes. Seedbeds have been excellent in the past 10 days and crops were planted in ground temperatures of up to 16°C last week. His main crop varieties include Rooster, Maris Piper and Saxon.
All of the chitted crops are up. Crops are receiving a herbicide application of Quad (2.0l/ha) and Sentrax Flow (1.0l/ha) as they emerge. A small amount of chitted crops have been planted under plastic.
Jamie’s winter barley will this week receive a head spray consisting of Siltra (0.2l/ha) and Bravo (1.0l/ha) as well as some foliar potash and manganese. Crops are very clean.
One week ago his winter wheat received their T1 consisting of Rubric (0.6l/ha), Vertisan (0.85l/ha), Bravo (1.0l/ha) and Manganese (2.0l/ha). Wheat will receive their top dressing of 75 kg N/ha this week. Crops are clean with just an isolated case of mildew in one field. WOSR received Proline (0.35l/ha) and Riza (0.75l/ha) last week.
“Potato planting has gone reasonable well. Potato seed has been slightly larger than normal this year which means more seed was required than planned.”
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