Agronomists all over the country are once again at the beginning of a busy crop walking season. In the next few weeks, they will walk crops all across the country and advise farmers on the products to apply and the rates to use them at.
At Drummonds, the work to produce a healthy crop started long before now, examining soil samples and creating different fertiliser blends. Huge work then goes into forming pesticide recommendations and the trial site in Termonfeckin, Co Louth provides an ideal place to test different product timings, rates, sequences and mixtures.
The trial site is managed by agronomy service manager Brian Reilly, but the whole agronomy team uses the site to examine issues encountered in the fields with customers or new ways of approaching crop management.
For example, Drummonds has long been an advocate of a two-spray fungicide programme on winter barley and trials have backed up this advice.
The trials allow for testing to be carried out in the local area.
Nutrition and biostimulants are also tested and liquid nitrogen is now being used at the site, following investment by the company in a liquid N plant.
Torp has also been a popular wheat variety in the region and trials at the site helped to identify this variety’s strength against septoria.
The correct balance of nutrients allows the soil and crop to work best together
Soil health is the first step to creating healthier, more resilient crops. This forms the foundation of many of the agronomy programmes at Drummonds.
A healthy soil contains a vast amount of beneficial microbes, which can suppress harmful pathogens and other disease causing organisms in the soil much quicker than in a soil that is less healthy.
Soil tests are the first port of call for all agronomists. These include soil pH, macro and micro nutrients and soil organic matter.
The correct balance of nutrients allows the soil and crop to work best together.
Nutrient management planning is then used to design nutrition programmes for crops on a field-by-field basis to help optimise performance.
Crop monitoring
Drummonds’ agronomists keep a close eye on crops throughout the growing season. Crops are monitored for:
Germination levels and tiller number.Growth stages.Leaf emergence.Diseases.Deficiencies.Pests.Ear count per square metre.Plant growth is limited by the scarcest resource
For the past number of years at Drummonds, we have introduced a plant sap testing service. This can identify underlying nutrient deficiencies before plants can display symptoms. Correcting trace element deficiencies early is important, as the damage has already been done to yield potential when symptoms become visible.
This service allows for a more sustainable approach – the appropriate nutrition is applied exactly when it is needed to help yield potential and delay disease development.
Plant growth is dictated by the scarcest resource, not the total resources available. This is referred to as Liebig’s law and it is core to the agronomy portfolio operated.
Research to drive advice
The trial site carries over 1,000 plots which are fully replicated and professionally managed across the season. These trials examine a range of agronomy concepts such as:
Variety evaluation.An agronomic trials programme looking at inputs from fungicides to foliar nutrition and biostimulants.Crops such as winter wheat, winter barley, winter oats, spring barley and oilseed rape are all researched at the site.Drummonds works closely with plant breeders from all over Europe to gather varieties for its cereal variety evaluation programme.
The goal is to breed and select varieties suitable for Irish conditions. Over 150 cereal varieties are trialled each year and these are evaluated before being submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for official evaluation.
The trials also look at national list and recommended list varieties, with and without fungicides and plant growth regulators.
This information allows our agronomists to more efficiently tailor agronomy packages for individual varieties grown on farm.
Traits such as the following are important in new varieties:
High vigour.Good straw strength.Lodging and brackling resistance.Disease resistance.High yielding.Excellent grain quality.Agronomy trials
In our agronomic trials programme we test a range of products, rates and timings for both cereal and non-cereal crops. These produce results-driven information, as the plots are brought to yield.
The trials show which products work best, their optimal application rate and the correct growth stage for application.
Because different regions in Ireland have different disease challenges – yellow rust in Dublin or septoria in Cork – the agronomy trials help identify agronomic packages that work best in individual areas. These trials can generate the most cost-effective programmes to produce top results for growers.
Fungicide programmes are trialled for a minimum of three years before a recommendation is given to growers.
Our fungicide programme work looks at a range of options such as seed treatments, biologicals, biostimulants, relative fungicide performance and rates and timings.
Deciding on agronomic advice
Our trials, together with the Department of Agriculture and HGCA data, form the basis of our agronomy service to growers. We look at combinations of biologicals and other actives which promote plant health, as a healthy plant is more robust in stressful conditions.
As stated previously, stressed plants can be more susceptible to disease – eg ramularia in barley. This is a harmful disease of barley crops, which is triggered when a crop is under stress.
If crop husbandry can be used to make plants healthier, they can better cope with stress and reduce the severity of such diseases. Having the capacity to trial potentially useful products provides an insight into their usefulness.
Advice is guided by trial results
Growers are always welcome to visit the trial site, which can be arranged by contacting any of the staff at Drummonds. At various times during the season, farm walks and technical information evenings are held to give clients information on issues relating to the management of the various crops.
Our agronomists, together with relevant specialists, discuss key aspects of the research along with the cropping technologies which are delivering beneficial results.
Fungicide timings
In order to maximise the effectiveness of chemical inputs, spray timings are crucial.
Like others, we recommend fungicide timings based on leaf emergence rather than crop growth stage. There are a number of reasons for this. Leaves can emerge at different times between crops and varieties.
Drummonds works closely with plant breeders from all over Europe to gather
varieties for its cereal variety evaluation programme.
Drilling date and temperature also influence leaf emergence. The earlier a crop is sown, leaf three emergence could be delayed until GS33, and late sowing could mean leaf three emerging at GS31. This is why spray timings should be governed by leaf emergence rather than growth stage.
Our agronomists at Drummonds tell us that the T1 timing is often applied too early, leading to a massive gap between the T1 and T2 fungicide timing. This creates major problems for septoria control in winter wheat. This is because important lower leaves are unprotected for a longer period of time when septoria can be multiplying rapidly.
Additionally, if the T2 is sprayed too early, the lower part of the flag leaf will not be sprayed with fungicide and it will be exposed to disease when fully emerged.
The Drummonds trial site at Termonfeckin, Co Louth.
Keeping the flag leaf clean and free of disease should be a priority, but a gap greater than four weeks between the T1 and T2 sprays can allow disease to develop and lead to reduced effectiveness from fungicides.
The objective is to keep the top three leaves of the canopy clean (T0, T1, T2 timings) and free of disease, as they contribute to over 75% of final yield.
Winter wheat in a trial at Drummonds where they examine pesticides, biostimulants and crop nutrition.
Photosynthesis to power grain fill is most effective on healthy, green leaves with no disease. The head spray (T3) is also important as the ears can contribute to over 20% of yield.
What does the future hold?
The EU Farm to Fork strategy states that we must reduce our chemical inputs into agriculture by 50% by 2030. This is driving us at Drummonds to improve our understanding and implementation of integrated pest management. We are doing this with the help of our dedicated trial site by:
Searching for and bringing more disease-resistant varieties to the market. Developing novel disease control strategies to be more sustainable and more effective.Delivering more sustainable products to our customers through results-based information.We can also see that a reduction in artificial fertiliser use will be required. Management options such as using more organic manures, cover cropping and better rotations will be key in achieving this. Could we see new crops being grown in Ireland?
Conservation tillage practices such as direct drilling, minimum tillage, strip tilling etc will play a part in helping to achieve these goals and we plan to trial these techniques in the future.
Increased data generation will also be key going forward. The more data we have, the more we can do with it.
Correcting the variability of soil analysis information, such as pH, N, P and K, is already with us through field mapping and GPS-controlled spreaders.
But we still do not have an accurate test to measure what nitrogen can be released from a soil during a growing season.
Such a test would be invaluable going forward as it would enable us to tailor applied nitrogen rates more accurately and reduce nitrate levels in waterways.
While we already have yield mapping and prescription application technologies, not enough farmers are using them.
Yield maps generate great data from fields which can trigger questions such as the reasons for the variability while facilitating variable seeding and fertiliser rates. While it is easier to justify on larger-scale farms, we are likely to see more farmers adopting this technology into the future. It could also generate very useful variety information.
Forecasting tools will play a big part in the future, whether they be for diseases, more accurate weather predictions or even for markets.
Tools are available for predicting blight, but tools for predicting key wet weather diseases such as septoria would be useful.
Being able to predict when septoria is building in a crop would help target the application of protective fungicides and could help save money and minimise yield loss for growers.
Drummonds was founded in 1760 by William Drummond in Scotland.Many years later, the Drummond family established a similar business in Ireland.Today, branches are located in Clonee (head office), Navan (feed mill), Drogheda (seed assembly branch), Ardee, Knockbridge, Mullingar, Lusk, Dromone and Rathcoffey.Drummonds purchases in excess of 100,000t of native grain, oilseeds and pulses each year, which are used to produce animal feed rations.The company assembles, imports and distributes seeds for a wide range of agricultural and amenity uses.Drummonds offers a comprehensive agronomy package for all aspects of Irish farming – tillage, vegetables, grassland, etc.
Agronomists all over the country are once again at the beginning of a busy crop walking season. In the next few weeks, they will walk crops all across the country and advise farmers on the products to apply and the rates to use them at.
At Drummonds, the work to produce a healthy crop started long before now, examining soil samples and creating different fertiliser blends. Huge work then goes into forming pesticide recommendations and the trial site in Termonfeckin, Co Louth provides an ideal place to test different product timings, rates, sequences and mixtures.
The trial site is managed by agronomy service manager Brian Reilly, but the whole agronomy team uses the site to examine issues encountered in the fields with customers or new ways of approaching crop management.
For example, Drummonds has long been an advocate of a two-spray fungicide programme on winter barley and trials have backed up this advice.
The trials allow for testing to be carried out in the local area.
Nutrition and biostimulants are also tested and liquid nitrogen is now being used at the site, following investment by the company in a liquid N plant.
Torp has also been a popular wheat variety in the region and trials at the site helped to identify this variety’s strength against septoria.
The correct balance of nutrients allows the soil and crop to work best together
Soil health is the first step to creating healthier, more resilient crops. This forms the foundation of many of the agronomy programmes at Drummonds.
A healthy soil contains a vast amount of beneficial microbes, which can suppress harmful pathogens and other disease causing organisms in the soil much quicker than in a soil that is less healthy.
Soil tests are the first port of call for all agronomists. These include soil pH, macro and micro nutrients and soil organic matter.
The correct balance of nutrients allows the soil and crop to work best together.
Nutrient management planning is then used to design nutrition programmes for crops on a field-by-field basis to help optimise performance.
Crop monitoring
Drummonds’ agronomists keep a close eye on crops throughout the growing season. Crops are monitored for:
Germination levels and tiller number.Growth stages.Leaf emergence.Diseases.Deficiencies.Pests.Ear count per square metre.Plant growth is limited by the scarcest resource
For the past number of years at Drummonds, we have introduced a plant sap testing service. This can identify underlying nutrient deficiencies before plants can display symptoms. Correcting trace element deficiencies early is important, as the damage has already been done to yield potential when symptoms become visible.
This service allows for a more sustainable approach – the appropriate nutrition is applied exactly when it is needed to help yield potential and delay disease development.
Plant growth is dictated by the scarcest resource, not the total resources available. This is referred to as Liebig’s law and it is core to the agronomy portfolio operated.
Research to drive advice
The trial site carries over 1,000 plots which are fully replicated and professionally managed across the season. These trials examine a range of agronomy concepts such as:
Variety evaluation.An agronomic trials programme looking at inputs from fungicides to foliar nutrition and biostimulants.Crops such as winter wheat, winter barley, winter oats, spring barley and oilseed rape are all researched at the site.Drummonds works closely with plant breeders from all over Europe to gather varieties for its cereal variety evaluation programme.
The goal is to breed and select varieties suitable for Irish conditions. Over 150 cereal varieties are trialled each year and these are evaluated before being submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for official evaluation.
The trials also look at national list and recommended list varieties, with and without fungicides and plant growth regulators.
This information allows our agronomists to more efficiently tailor agronomy packages for individual varieties grown on farm.
Traits such as the following are important in new varieties:
High vigour.Good straw strength.Lodging and brackling resistance.Disease resistance.High yielding.Excellent grain quality.Agronomy trials
In our agronomic trials programme we test a range of products, rates and timings for both cereal and non-cereal crops. These produce results-driven information, as the plots are brought to yield.
The trials show which products work best, their optimal application rate and the correct growth stage for application.
Because different regions in Ireland have different disease challenges – yellow rust in Dublin or septoria in Cork – the agronomy trials help identify agronomic packages that work best in individual areas. These trials can generate the most cost-effective programmes to produce top results for growers.
Fungicide programmes are trialled for a minimum of three years before a recommendation is given to growers.
Our fungicide programme work looks at a range of options such as seed treatments, biologicals, biostimulants, relative fungicide performance and rates and timings.
Deciding on agronomic advice
Our trials, together with the Department of Agriculture and HGCA data, form the basis of our agronomy service to growers. We look at combinations of biologicals and other actives which promote plant health, as a healthy plant is more robust in stressful conditions.
As stated previously, stressed plants can be more susceptible to disease – eg ramularia in barley. This is a harmful disease of barley crops, which is triggered when a crop is under stress.
If crop husbandry can be used to make plants healthier, they can better cope with stress and reduce the severity of such diseases. Having the capacity to trial potentially useful products provides an insight into their usefulness.
Advice is guided by trial results
Growers are always welcome to visit the trial site, which can be arranged by contacting any of the staff at Drummonds. At various times during the season, farm walks and technical information evenings are held to give clients information on issues relating to the management of the various crops.
Our agronomists, together with relevant specialists, discuss key aspects of the research along with the cropping technologies which are delivering beneficial results.
Fungicide timings
In order to maximise the effectiveness of chemical inputs, spray timings are crucial.
Like others, we recommend fungicide timings based on leaf emergence rather than crop growth stage. There are a number of reasons for this. Leaves can emerge at different times between crops and varieties.
Drummonds works closely with plant breeders from all over Europe to gather
varieties for its cereal variety evaluation programme.
Drilling date and temperature also influence leaf emergence. The earlier a crop is sown, leaf three emergence could be delayed until GS33, and late sowing could mean leaf three emerging at GS31. This is why spray timings should be governed by leaf emergence rather than growth stage.
Our agronomists at Drummonds tell us that the T1 timing is often applied too early, leading to a massive gap between the T1 and T2 fungicide timing. This creates major problems for septoria control in winter wheat. This is because important lower leaves are unprotected for a longer period of time when septoria can be multiplying rapidly.
Additionally, if the T2 is sprayed too early, the lower part of the flag leaf will not be sprayed with fungicide and it will be exposed to disease when fully emerged.
The Drummonds trial site at Termonfeckin, Co Louth.
Keeping the flag leaf clean and free of disease should be a priority, but a gap greater than four weeks between the T1 and T2 sprays can allow disease to develop and lead to reduced effectiveness from fungicides.
The objective is to keep the top three leaves of the canopy clean (T0, T1, T2 timings) and free of disease, as they contribute to over 75% of final yield.
Winter wheat in a trial at Drummonds where they examine pesticides, biostimulants and crop nutrition.
Photosynthesis to power grain fill is most effective on healthy, green leaves with no disease. The head spray (T3) is also important as the ears can contribute to over 20% of yield.
What does the future hold?
The EU Farm to Fork strategy states that we must reduce our chemical inputs into agriculture by 50% by 2030. This is driving us at Drummonds to improve our understanding and implementation of integrated pest management. We are doing this with the help of our dedicated trial site by:
Searching for and bringing more disease-resistant varieties to the market. Developing novel disease control strategies to be more sustainable and more effective.Delivering more sustainable products to our customers through results-based information.We can also see that a reduction in artificial fertiliser use will be required. Management options such as using more organic manures, cover cropping and better rotations will be key in achieving this. Could we see new crops being grown in Ireland?
Conservation tillage practices such as direct drilling, minimum tillage, strip tilling etc will play a part in helping to achieve these goals and we plan to trial these techniques in the future.
Increased data generation will also be key going forward. The more data we have, the more we can do with it.
Correcting the variability of soil analysis information, such as pH, N, P and K, is already with us through field mapping and GPS-controlled spreaders.
But we still do not have an accurate test to measure what nitrogen can be released from a soil during a growing season.
Such a test would be invaluable going forward as it would enable us to tailor applied nitrogen rates more accurately and reduce nitrate levels in waterways.
While we already have yield mapping and prescription application technologies, not enough farmers are using them.
Yield maps generate great data from fields which can trigger questions such as the reasons for the variability while facilitating variable seeding and fertiliser rates. While it is easier to justify on larger-scale farms, we are likely to see more farmers adopting this technology into the future. It could also generate very useful variety information.
Forecasting tools will play a big part in the future, whether they be for diseases, more accurate weather predictions or even for markets.
Tools are available for predicting blight, but tools for predicting key wet weather diseases such as septoria would be useful.
Being able to predict when septoria is building in a crop would help target the application of protective fungicides and could help save money and minimise yield loss for growers.
Drummonds was founded in 1760 by William Drummond in Scotland.Many years later, the Drummond family established a similar business in Ireland.Today, branches are located in Clonee (head office), Navan (feed mill), Drogheda (seed assembly branch), Ardee, Knockbridge, Mullingar, Lusk, Dromone and Rathcoffey.Drummonds purchases in excess of 100,000t of native grain, oilseeds and pulses each year, which are used to produce animal feed rations.The company assembles, imports and distributes seeds for a wide range of agricultural and amenity uses.Drummonds offers a comprehensive agronomy package for all aspects of Irish farming – tillage, vegetables, grassland, etc. 
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