Good progress: Growers across the south and east got a lot of combining done since last week with the help of better-than-forecasted weather. Crop condition has held up well despite some early concerns about sprouting. Yields continue to be variable but generally good and the later spring barley seems to be doing as good or better than the March-planted crop. Indeed much of the spring barley up the country is not yet ripe.

Conditions remain very challenging for those in the northwest, where trafficability is an additional complication for the scarce harvesting opportunities. When most of the rest of the country did a week’s cutting, two half days were about the limit of cutting opportunity in that region, where some growers are still trying to salvage winter barley.

Oilseed rape: As we move into September, planting is now on the late side for winter rape. Because autumn growth is so important, the application of some form of nitrogen, bagged or organic, must be regarded as essential at this stage to help generate sufficient autumn canopy. Early vigour is also useful.

Every day counts so if you still have to harvest a crop, chop the straw to get in quicker to plant. Where straw is chopped it is better to do some soil incorporation prior to ploughing where that is the planting method. Alternatively it can be strip-planted but this probably suits earlier planting better. If you leave a bed of straw on top during planting this adds an additional challenge for the use of residual herbicides.

Apply some nitrogen and phosphate in the seedbed, eg two bags of 10:10:20 or a bag of 18:6:12 or a bag of DAP per acre to help drive autumn growth. This needs to be applied before 15 September. Alternatively, 5-10 hundredweight/ac of chicken pellets before or after planting.

Soil testing: Soil fertility remains a critical element of crop productivity. Regular testing is important to keep the balance right and this should be done about every three or four years to provide continuous guidance. A valid soil test now must be no more than four years old.

It is now common to find big fertility variation within large fields so additional samples should be considered to help address this variability. This may actually be limiting productivity in parts of a field. Also consider taking samples from around the field margins about 3m out from the edge. These edges may well be decreasing in pH and fertility levels as tramline widths increase.

Tillage Forum: The National Crops Forum is to take place next Wednesday 7 September in the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge from 2pm to 5.30pm. It is open to growers, merchants and all involved in the sector. Topics to be covered include variety update for autumn planting, rotations, seeding rates, a look at financial health and outlook for tillage farms and the potential for capital investments. It has always been a worthwhile afternoon.