From the tramlines: progress made as spring makes an appearance

Busherstown, Co Carlow

Much progress has been made in the fields over the past few weeks but there is still a lot more to do, explains Larry. Ground conditions have begun to improve over the past week but there is still some ground which is too wet to plough.

Larry has around 40% of the spring ground ploughed, picking the driest fields to plough first. On 14 April, Larry direct-drilled his Fanfare spring beans at 250kg/ha along with 370kg/ha of 0:10:20. “The conditions weren’t ideal but it was the first opportunity,” explains Larry. He only managed to plant two-thirds of the planned area.

Just 35% of his spring barley is sown. He had to leave the headlands in some fields and sow them at a later stage as conditions were too sticky. Based on a 49g TGW, he is sowing at a rate of 180kg/ha using his 3m trailed Vaderstad Rapid drill. “With the warmer ground, you would nearly expect germination to be better.” With the increased area of spring barley this year, there will be an a need for additional seed, explains Larry.

Winter crops up to date

Winter crops have really started to move over the past week and are around GS31. All of his barley and wheat are up to date with fertiliser and the balance of N has been brought to 190kg/ha and 120kg of N/ha for oats. Larry may apply an additional 30-40kg of N/ha to his wheat as it approaches flag leaf.

Crops are generally clean but there is some rhyncho present on his Cassia winter barley and low levels of septoria are evident on his winter wheat.

All crops received their T1 and PGR spray around a week ago, receiving a combination of either Moddus (0.2-0.15l/ha), CCC (1.0l/ha), Bravo (1.0l/ha), Opera (1.0l/ha), Proline (0.4l/ha) or Talius (0.2l/ha) depending on the crop. His pre-emerge autumn herbicide spray has worked well so there won’t be a clean-up spray required this spring.

“In a normal one, the plough would be in the shed, greased and oiled at this stage. It’s been a long time since we were ploughing in April. We’re completely out of sync here.”

Clonmel , Co Tipperary

Some spring progress has been made over the past four weeks but poor weather continues to challenge growers in Clonmel. Since speaking to John last, a number of his fields were flooded on two occasions when the River Suir burst its banks. Luckily no crops were lost.

Around 50% of his spring ground is ploughed. John made the decision to abandon planting spring beans last week as the ground conditions weren’t suitable and he didn’t want to risk a late October harvest. “Spring of 2018 has been a disaster and I don’t want my 2019 crops to be affected from the knock-on effects”.

This area will be replaced with spring barley but John stresses that conditions must be right.

“I have always believed that planting conditions are more important than planting date.”

John hopes to start sowing spring barley this week at 165kg/ha using his 3m mounted Amazone one-pass drill. Before drilling, he broadcasts 10:8:21 plus trace elements at 370kg/ha. John will apply a maximum of 135kg N/ha and won’t be going any heavier. He thinks achieving the protein specs this year may be an issue.

Winter crops powering ahead

Winter crops are looking well and are around one week behind normal, according to John. His winter barley, wheat and oats are relatively clean but, similar to Larry, some septoria is present in wheat.

His winter barley is at GS39 and has received its T2 spray. John applied Deuce (0.85l/ha), Terpal (1.25/ha) and Bravo (1.0l/ha). His winter oats will also receive its T2 this week consisting of Capalo, (1.25l/ha) and Ceraide (1.4l/ha). His winter wheat is still a week away from receiving its T1 but has received a T0 consisting of Meteor (2.5l/ha), Bravo (1.5l/ha) and Amazinc trace element (1.0l/ha).

Winter barley and oats are up to date with fertiliser, having received 180 and 145kg of N/ha respectively. Winter wheat will be brought up to 210kg of N/ha later this week.

“In all my years I’ve never seen a year as bad. Normally I’d be complaining if I didn’t have the seed drill in the shed by mid-April but this year I haven’t even started sowing yet.”

Cloon Co Donegal

Conditions haven’t been perfect but work could still be done over the past few weeks in Donegal. Heavy ground in particular has been slow to dry, explains Jamie, but dry ground is in reasonable shape. This week is a critical week for work. Normally by this stage, potato planting should be well under way on Jamie’s farm.

Spring sowing has been going well. Jamie has finished sowing oats and expects to be finished barley by the end of this week. He broadcasts either 300kg/ha of 15:3:20 or 350-400kg/ha of 10:5:20 + Mn + S on spring cereal ground before sowing using his Lemken Solitair 8 Drill mounted seed drill. Growing Binary and Keely oats and Planet barley, he’s aiming to sow 420 seeds/m2 and 350 seeds/m2 respectively. Jamie is currently around one-third through with potato planting. The majority of early maincrop Rooster potato seed is chitted which slows down planting but allows the crop establish quicker. P is generally placed with the tuber while K is incorporated into the seedbed. Rates of P and K depend on a range of factors including soil analysis and potato variety.

Winter crops nearing T1

Jamie’s winter crop work is up to date as his barley and wheat are nearing their T1 timings. Disease pressure is low as a result of the low temperatures and a late spring. “Crops are clean and there’s nothing to really worry about bar a small bit of rhyncho in barley”.

Jamie plans to apply Siltra (0.6l/ha) on winter barley and Rubric (0.7/ha), Bravo (1.0l/ha) and possibly Corbel (0.2l/ha) on his winter wheat. He may also apply 1.0l/ha of chlormequat plus Moddus as crops may be softer than normal as they race through the growth stages.

Winter barley has received its fertiliser to bring total N up to 180kg/ha. Winter wheat will receive its final split of 50kg/ha of N to bring the total up to 220-240kg/ha. WOSR is entering flowering stage and will receive its final application of N this week to bring the total to 200kg/ha.

“The biggest thing we need at the minute is heat – last week soil temperatures were up at 12-13 degrees but now were back to 10”.