Bushmills,
Co Antrim
Ground conditions were getting sticky at the start of the month due to high rainfall but have improved considerably over the last two weeks.
The return of warmer dry weather has been very beneficial to his maincrop potatoes but Mark needs to ensure blight fungicides are timely.
There have been some very humid days recently, which increase the risk of blight infection.
Mark McCurdy applying a head spray onto his spring barley in good conditions.
Mark intends to apply the fourth fungicide to his maincrop potatoes so far this year later this week.
This will consist of Infinito (1.6l/ha) and liquid seaweed (2l/ha). The crop is in flower and tuber numbers appear to be on par with average.
He is down to his last 100t of old-season potatoes, which have been moving steadily despite the better weather.
He hopes to start lifting his early crops with his new Grimme Varitron 220 self-propelled potato harvester this week
He has also started digging his Queens and Home Guard early crops and selling on demand. Quality is good and he had to flail the canopy of his Home Guard crop to stop them from increasing in size further.
He hopes to start lifting his early crops with his new Grimme Varitron 220 self-propelled potato harvester this week.
He decided to invest in his first self-propelled harvester due to its 2t bunker capacity and its 900 tyres and tracks.
This should be easier on the soil when compared to his old trailed harvester.
Winter barley in August
He envisages that his winter barley will be harvested at the start of August.
The potential of the crop appears to be good but it is proving slow to ripen.
He is interested to find out if this will help keep the ground drier during winter and dry out quicker in the spring
Some of the winter barley ground will be planted with potatoes next year and he would consider growing a cover crop in that ground.
He is interested to find out if this will help keep the ground drier during winter and dry out quicker in the spring.
His spring barley crop received a head spray last week consisting of Rubric (0.27l/ha), Siltra (0.53l/ha) and Bravo (1l/ha).
The crop is looking relatively clean but his Tomahawk variety is somewhat short. His Claas Lexion 405 combine with 4.5m head is now fully serviced and ready to go.
Ballyragget,
Co Kilkenny
The weather on James’s farm over the past month can only be described as perfect.
With rainfall totalling 13mm, maximum temperatures of 25°C, average daytime humidity of around 70%, and a mixture of sunshine and cloudy conditions has been ideal for grain fill while keeping disease pressure low.
At a glance, the yield potential of his winter barley looks average while winter oats, wheat and oilseed rape crops look very promising.
That said, it won’t be long until he finds out as James’s harvest is set to start later this week.
His hybrid winter barley crops were burned off at the start of July and are due to be harvested later this week.
After harvesting and baling, James will prepare the ground for winter oilseed rape. He stubble cultivates to 15cm and presses in one run.
James O'Reilly's Costello winter wheat remains clean.
He then allows weeds and volunteers to germinate and aims to burn this off twice before drilling. Getting good weed seed-to-soil contact is vital he remarks.
“It’s crucial to kill all of the vegetation before drilling to avoid the development of a green bridge for pests, particularly aphids” he explains.
James has high hopes for his winter oat crops, which are 10 days from harvest. “I think it’s been ideal grain filling weather, the last massive harvest we had was 2011 and there wasn’t any long spells of very bright weather then, which is similar to this year,” James remarks.
His winter oilseed rape will be desiccated this week with the aim of harvesting it in three to four weeks
His winter wheat crops are still green and relatively clean and James believes there is good potential in crop.
As he aims to have winter crops only in his rotation, the stubble will be cultivated and burned off twice before autumn drilling.
His winter oilseed rape will be desiccated this week with the aim of harvesting it in three to four weeks.
OSR yields will be one to watch as the crop has looked very promising all year.
James generally bales his OSR straw, some of which is used for bedding while the rest goes to Brian McGrath of Foulkstown Feeds for processing.
Demand remains good for new-crop straw and James now has over 8,000 8x4x4 square bales accounted for.
Ballybrittas,
Co Laois
There’s been a lot of hay made in Paul’s area over the past two weeks with just 0.8mm of rain having fallen since 1 July.
While his winter barley is turning, his winter wheat is still green and rain at this stage wouldn’t do it any harm, he remarks.
While there have been some humid days, disease pressure remains low.
Paul was monitoring his winter wheat crops carefully as there was some steam mildew present in the lower canopy of the crop.
He explains how everything has gone right for his wheat crops and feels that there is very good potential this year.
Paul O'Connell making hay on some of his low-lying ground.
While the winter wheat crop is still around four weeks from harvest, he expects to be harvesting winter barley by next week, slightly later than anticipated. He generally doesn’t burn off much of the crop as he fears the risk of straw breakdown.
As the crop is ripening slowly, the head and straw appear to be ripening evenly.
The average farm yield for dried winter barley is around 4t/ac and Paul expects to have a number of crops which will reach average this year.
After baling 8x4x3 square bales, he generally discs the stubbles to 5cm with a Lemken Heliodor 9 disc to allow the weeds to germinate
Once harvest begins, going well it will take him 12 days to complete harvesting the barley crop.
After baling 8x4x3 square bales, he generally discs the stubbles to 5cm with a Lemken Heliodor 9 disc to allow the weeds to germinate.
He may disc a second time to help promote a second flush of weeds. He generally only burns the stubbles off once.
Paul says his New Holland CX8060 with 6m header is fully serviced and ready for the off.
He generally tips the grain in a temporary storage area until he can dry it. He runs a 38t batch dryer which is capable of drying 12-15t/hr of grain with 20% moisture content down to 14.5%.
Enquiries for straw have been steady but Paul has also been busy making hay this month.
He generally makes hay on some of his low-lying ground which is not suitable for tillage. This year he got around 15 4x4 round bales per acre.
Read more
Harvest 2019 set to commence this week
Tillage farmers’ concerns grow over pesticide availability
Bushmills,
Co Antrim
Ground conditions were getting sticky at the start of the month due to high rainfall but have improved considerably over the last two weeks.
The return of warmer dry weather has been very beneficial to his maincrop potatoes but Mark needs to ensure blight fungicides are timely.
There have been some very humid days recently, which increase the risk of blight infection.
Mark McCurdy applying a head spray onto his spring barley in good conditions.
Mark intends to apply the fourth fungicide to his maincrop potatoes so far this year later this week.
This will consist of Infinito (1.6l/ha) and liquid seaweed (2l/ha). The crop is in flower and tuber numbers appear to be on par with average.
He is down to his last 100t of old-season potatoes, which have been moving steadily despite the better weather.
He hopes to start lifting his early crops with his new Grimme Varitron 220 self-propelled potato harvester this week
He has also started digging his Queens and Home Guard early crops and selling on demand. Quality is good and he had to flail the canopy of his Home Guard crop to stop them from increasing in size further.
He hopes to start lifting his early crops with his new Grimme Varitron 220 self-propelled potato harvester this week.
He decided to invest in his first self-propelled harvester due to its 2t bunker capacity and its 900 tyres and tracks.
This should be easier on the soil when compared to his old trailed harvester.
Winter barley in August
He envisages that his winter barley will be harvested at the start of August.
The potential of the crop appears to be good but it is proving slow to ripen.
He is interested to find out if this will help keep the ground drier during winter and dry out quicker in the spring
Some of the winter barley ground will be planted with potatoes next year and he would consider growing a cover crop in that ground.
He is interested to find out if this will help keep the ground drier during winter and dry out quicker in the spring.
His spring barley crop received a head spray last week consisting of Rubric (0.27l/ha), Siltra (0.53l/ha) and Bravo (1l/ha).
The crop is looking relatively clean but his Tomahawk variety is somewhat short. His Claas Lexion 405 combine with 4.5m head is now fully serviced and ready to go.
Ballyragget,
Co Kilkenny
The weather on James’s farm over the past month can only be described as perfect.
With rainfall totalling 13mm, maximum temperatures of 25°C, average daytime humidity of around 70%, and a mixture of sunshine and cloudy conditions has been ideal for grain fill while keeping disease pressure low.
At a glance, the yield potential of his winter barley looks average while winter oats, wheat and oilseed rape crops look very promising.
That said, it won’t be long until he finds out as James’s harvest is set to start later this week.
His hybrid winter barley crops were burned off at the start of July and are due to be harvested later this week.
After harvesting and baling, James will prepare the ground for winter oilseed rape. He stubble cultivates to 15cm and presses in one run.
James O'Reilly's Costello winter wheat remains clean.
He then allows weeds and volunteers to germinate and aims to burn this off twice before drilling. Getting good weed seed-to-soil contact is vital he remarks.
“It’s crucial to kill all of the vegetation before drilling to avoid the development of a green bridge for pests, particularly aphids” he explains.
James has high hopes for his winter oat crops, which are 10 days from harvest. “I think it’s been ideal grain filling weather, the last massive harvest we had was 2011 and there wasn’t any long spells of very bright weather then, which is similar to this year,” James remarks.
His winter oilseed rape will be desiccated this week with the aim of harvesting it in three to four weeks
His winter wheat crops are still green and relatively clean and James believes there is good potential in crop.
As he aims to have winter crops only in his rotation, the stubble will be cultivated and burned off twice before autumn drilling.
His winter oilseed rape will be desiccated this week with the aim of harvesting it in three to four weeks.
OSR yields will be one to watch as the crop has looked very promising all year.
James generally bales his OSR straw, some of which is used for bedding while the rest goes to Brian McGrath of Foulkstown Feeds for processing.
Demand remains good for new-crop straw and James now has over 8,000 8x4x4 square bales accounted for.
Ballybrittas,
Co Laois
There’s been a lot of hay made in Paul’s area over the past two weeks with just 0.8mm of rain having fallen since 1 July.
While his winter barley is turning, his winter wheat is still green and rain at this stage wouldn’t do it any harm, he remarks.
While there have been some humid days, disease pressure remains low.
Paul was monitoring his winter wheat crops carefully as there was some steam mildew present in the lower canopy of the crop.
He explains how everything has gone right for his wheat crops and feels that there is very good potential this year.
Paul O'Connell making hay on some of his low-lying ground.
While the winter wheat crop is still around four weeks from harvest, he expects to be harvesting winter barley by next week, slightly later than anticipated. He generally doesn’t burn off much of the crop as he fears the risk of straw breakdown.
As the crop is ripening slowly, the head and straw appear to be ripening evenly.
The average farm yield for dried winter barley is around 4t/ac and Paul expects to have a number of crops which will reach average this year.
After baling 8x4x3 square bales, he generally discs the stubbles to 5cm with a Lemken Heliodor 9 disc to allow the weeds to germinate
Once harvest begins, going well it will take him 12 days to complete harvesting the barley crop.
After baling 8x4x3 square bales, he generally discs the stubbles to 5cm with a Lemken Heliodor 9 disc to allow the weeds to germinate.
He may disc a second time to help promote a second flush of weeds. He generally only burns the stubbles off once.
Paul says his New Holland CX8060 with 6m header is fully serviced and ready for the off.
He generally tips the grain in a temporary storage area until he can dry it. He runs a 38t batch dryer which is capable of drying 12-15t/hr of grain with 20% moisture content down to 14.5%.
Enquiries for straw have been steady but Paul has also been busy making hay this month.
He generally makes hay on some of his low-lying ground which is not suitable for tillage. This year he got around 15 4x4 round bales per acre.
Read more
Harvest 2019 set to commence this week
Tillage farmers’ concerns grow over pesticide availability
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