One effect of the change in the weather has been to build up water reserves. Land drains are now pumping water as vigorously as I have ever seen them and ditches that were dry all summer and through to February are now full.

We are back getting some limited grazing by day but any thought of putting cattle permanently out has been shelved for the moment.

Main concern

My main tillage concern at this stage is the control of wild oats. Three years ago, I was unhappy, to put it at its mildest, with the wild oat control I achieved in a crop of seed wheat. It took endless hand rogueing.

We also applied a second spray, which I thought achieved nothing. Samples were sent away and the answer back was that there was no resistance to the herbicide found.

Then, two weeks ago, I read Andy Doyle in the Irish Farmers Journal saying that Teagasc Oak Park is clear that resistance to wild oat herbicides is real and present in some Irish tillage fields.

We have been growing seed crops for a long time and, if we are to continue, it is essential that wild oats are not present on the farm. I wonder did we use insurance spraying too much and so encourage the development of resistant types?

Last year we had to abandon our gluten-free oats in the same field because of excessive wild oat contamination. This year I am not quite sure what strategy to follow but will certainly take advice over the next few weeks.

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